The pilgrims who settled in America loved and honored God. ​They sought to govern their lives in a way that pleased Him. Their character and faith was evident in the way they lived and in the governing documents they created. Here is a short video about The Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of their community.

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"This day, before we came to harbour, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was thought good there should be an association and agreement, that we should combine together in one body and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows, word for word."  ~William Bradford

The Mayflower Compact

"In the name of God, Amen. 

"We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. 

"Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; 

"And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. 

"In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."

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What does The Mayflower Compact  tell us?

• The Pilgrims created their governing document "in the name of God."  God is very important to them.  They want to govern their lives in a way that is pleasing to HIm.

• They are loyal subjects of King James.
  

• Their purpose for leaving  their homes and sailing across the ocean to form a new colony in Virginia is to glorify God, to advance the Christian faith, and to honor their King and country.
  

• They are forming a government to keep order, stay alive, and to fulfill the purpose stated above.
  

• This document gives them the power to form the laws, rules, and offices needed for the good of the colony.
  

• As leaders of the government, they promise submission and obedience to the people.
  

Read More:  The Mayflower Compact

This section was created in response to a problem. For months Facebook did not allow visitors
to like or share posts from the PatrioticMoms.com blog. Then many thousands of likes disappeared from past posts. I could not fix the issue or find a source of help. Eventually I discovered the problem was limited to this blog and added a new blog that allows users to like and share posts with their friends on Facebook. ​Problem solved!

This blog covers content posted from May 2011 to June 2013. It has my very first attempts at blogging, tends to be more political, and has occasional articles of more general interest. I posted daily, so this includes many posts I hoped would be helpful for patriotic moms and their children. When I discovered dads were frequent visitors, I included them too.

The blog created in June 2013 is a little more focused on constitutional principles that every American should understand and on some of our inspiring history, heritage and heroes.

With both blogs, you have three ways to find content you want:

• Search by date (on the right side)
• Search by category (on the right side)
• Use the search boxes to enter a word or phrase of interest (at the top and on the right side)

Hope you find what you came for! If you don't (or even if you do) please fell free to let me know.

Today, D-Day,  we pause to  remember the 6th of June, 1944 when thousands of courageous Allied troops faced almost certain death or injury as they stormed the beaches of occupied France. Their courage changed the course of history. 

General Eisenhower's Message Sent Just Before the Invasion​

​Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! 

You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

~Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. 

Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

(If you can't see the rest of the speech, please click the tiny "Read More" link below)

Senator Rand Paul's message is simple.  

“When we as Republicans wake up and tell voters that we want to be the champion of the small farmer and the small businessman or woman, then we will thrive as a party.  Republicans care just as deeply about the environment as Democrats, but we also care about jobs.”

Hopefully young voters, entrepreneurs, farmers, and everyone who loves liberty will listen and resonate with his message.

 

The primary purpose of a sales tax was originally to pay for necessary services a company required to do its business.  The tax was used to help cover the cost of company services from the police department, the fire department, and so on.  

Internet companies don't require those services and should not be required to pay for them.  

The internet sales tax places an immense burden on small companies, and makes it virtually impossible to compete with larger companies in the market place.  

Please watch and share this video of Catesby Jones telling his story.

Hi, I’m Catesby Jones.

I own a small business in Virginia called Peace Frogs. My three dozen employees and I make T-shirts and other cool stuff. We’re a positive company that loves being able to do all our work from Gloucester, VA, where I grew up.

What makes it possible is the Internet. By reaching out to a worldwide base of customers, companies in rural parts like ours can thrive and have a much bigger presence than they otherwise would through traditional sales.

This is why I’m incredibly concerned about the Internet sales tax that’s being debated in Washington.

It’s an attack on small businesses like mine. If you look at who’s lining up for and against the misnamed Marketplace Fairness Act, mostly large corporations are beating up on us small guys. They have the lobbyists, they have the muscle, and they have what it takes to impose burdensome regulations on online entrepreneurs.

We don’t have the same access to Washington.

I’ve spoken out against this threat and recently shared my story with Heritage. They visited our warehouse and I explained how the Internet sales tax would harm my growing business.

The Internet offers the best opportunity for Gloucester natives to come home and operate a business. There aren’t many other enterprise vehicles that allow this type of flexible marketplace. But an Internet sales tax would threaten the well-being of my family and my employees’ families and result in higher costs for my customers.

Proponents of the Internet sales tax want to make me a tax collector for 9,646 tax jurisdictions. Their misguided efforts could make Peace Frogs at risk for audits by 46 states, the District of Columbia and countless other U.S. territories.

We need as much help as we can get to educate Americans about this.

Thanks so much for reading my note. If you wouldn’t mind, please share this video with your friends and family.

Live Fun, Do Good.

This morning a Facebook friend's wall declares, "Adversity is mandatory. Misery is optional."  I believe that's true.  

Life, although it's sometimes laden with frustration, worry, even pain, can be overflowing with purpose and meaning.  

The trials and adversity that can overwhelm us can also refine us and make us wiser, stronger, and more compassionate.

Trusting God empowers us to see the hidden blessings.  The scriptures teach us, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."  ~Proverbs 3:5-6

When we do that, we experience the hope that transforms our trials into blessings.

Two competing forces are pushing on America’s K–12 education system today.

One is an effort to infuse education choice into a long-stagnant system, empowering parents with the ability to send their child to a school that meets her unique learning needs.

The other is an effort to further centralize education through Common Core national standards and tests.

Across the country, education choice options have been proliferating rapidly, including vouchers, tuition tax credits, special needs scholarships, and education savings accounts. Educational choice is a revolution because it funds children instead of physical school buildings and allows dollars to follow children to any school—or education option—that meets their unique learning needs.

CHOICE EMPOWERS PARENTS to direct their child’s share of education funding, giving them options beyond an assigned government school.

CHOICE PRESSURES PUBLIC SCHOOLS with a much-needed competitive atmosphere, which works toward improving educational outcomes for students who take advantage of choice options as well as students who choose to attend their local public schools.

CHOICE HELPS KIDS. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., now have private school choice programs—and more states are considering implementing choice options. Education choice represents the type of innovation and freedom that will provide long-overdue reform to the K–12 education system, and holds the potential to truly raise educational outcomes for every child across the country.

But at the same time this encouraging shift toward education choice is underway, there is a push to take education in the exact opposite direction through Common Core national standards and tests.

COMMON CORE IS an effort to centralize education by dictating the standards and assessments that will determine the content taught in every public school across the country.

COMMON CORE HAS NO EVIDENCE that it will improve academic outcomes or boost international competitiveness. But the Obama Administration has pushed states to adopt national standards and assessments in exchange for offers of billions of dollars in federal funding and waivers from the onerous provisions of No Child Left Behind.

COMMON CORE ASSUMES that top-down, uniform standards and assessments—driven by federal bureaucrats and national organizations—are preferable to the state and local reform efforts guided by input from parents, teachers, and taxpayers.

States have been competing to improve their education systems by implementing education choice options and other reforms such as alternative teacher certification, transparent A–F grading systems, and a focus on reading achievement. Check out innovations in:

• Florida
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Arizona

American education is at a crossroads: One path leads toward further centralization and greater federal intervention. The other path leads toward robust education choice, including school choice and choice in curricula.

Common Core takes the path toward centralization, and state leaders should seize the moment to resist this latest federal overreach. National standards and tests are a challenge to educational freedom in America, and state and local leaders who believe in limited government should resist them.

Few people need the ability to learn and teach important skills more than Patriotic Moms.  So this TED talk is a gold mine for us.

Josh Kaufman specializes in teaching people from all walks of life how to master practical knowledge and skills. In his talk, he tells how his first child inspired him to approach learning in a whole new way.

Josh believes that if you put 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice into learning a skill, you will be astounded.  You just need to:

1. Deconstruct the skill.  Break it down into its smallest component parts.  Determine the essential parts to achieve your goal and practice them first.  That will allow you to improve your performance in the least amount of time possible.

2. Learn enough to self-correct.  Get 3 to 5 resources about what you are trying to learn.  Learn just enough that you can actually practice and self correct as you practice.  Get better at recognizing when you are making a mistake and then do something a little different.

3. Remove practice barriers, including distractions like TV and the internet.  

4. Practice at least 20 hours.  Committing to 20 hours helps you overcome the initial frustration barrier we all face and stick with your project long enough to experience the rewards.  

You can use these four simple steps to learn anything.  Start by gathering the necessary tools and skills to get started.

The major barrier to skill acquisition isn't intellectual...it's emotional.  We all feel stupid at the beginning of learning a new skill, and feeling stupid isn't fun.  But it's worth it.  All it take is 20 hours.

What do you want to learn?

"The President is in danger of losing his moral authority to lead the nation."

~Rand Paul