In August of 1776, King George expected Washington to surrender his Continental Army after their quick defeat in the Battle for Long Island. Two weeks later, New York City, the crown jewel of the new world, also fell to British control. The cause appeared lost, yet a small minority of colonists held firm. Patriots skirmished, starved and retreated for nearly four months until Christmas Day when they unexpectedly reversed course, crossed the Delaware River in the icy darkness, and decimated the fat and happy Hessian mercenary forces in their comfortable winter quarters in Trenton. What gives?

How is it possible for a starving army of farmers and merchants, one-third of which who wrapped their feet in burlap and rope because they lacked boots, to win a six year war of attrition over an adversary possessing a superior supply of food, arms, men and training? Here is how and why—it was the hand of God. America is the channel through which God touches the lives of all humanity. For 235 years, our great American experiment in freedom has relieved more human suffering than any other nation and there were many times where it appeared we might fail except for the dispensation of Divine Providence. I recognize a statement such as this runs contrary to the conventional wisdom perpetuated in academia, the media, and our White House. They are wrong.

Our great republic was divinely inspired to be the land of limitless opportunity where anyone willing to work or risk can make it big and become generous tithers. Occupiers are oblivious to the relationship between risk, work and reward and mistakenly think simply by existing they are entitled to the bounty from the sweat of others. Unfortunately, one and one-half of America’s national political parties have abandoned God’s principles of liberty and instead based their platform on this Marxist theory of redistribution. Do not buy the lie! It is freedom which makes our American republic the greatest institution in world history. This brings me to my point.

Being an American is a participatory event. As President Ronald Reagan said, freedom is not something which is passed from one generation to the next in the bloodlines; it must be earned. Have you done everything possible to insure your posterity will enjoy the blessings of American liberty? If not, it is time. The restoration of America begins with you, because it won’t begin anywhere else.

This New Year’s I encourage you to take the Patriot’s Resolution—it is a three step process. Begin by reading the Bible in its entirety in 2012. (If you’ve already done that, do it again. There is a lot in there.) Steps two and three are much easier, but of equal importance. Reread America’s “Declaration of Independence” and “Constitution”. Every night around your dinner table, discuss a single topic which has been addressed in either of our founding documents and tie it to a Biblical principle. Fathers, this means you will need to do your homework before dinnertime, but remember freedom is not easy, only worth it. Use these family discussions as a stepping stone to influence others and create a tidal wave of patriots with the fervor for independence like was seen in ’76.

To do anything less cheapens the sacrifice of the two starving Continental soldiers who died from exposure on December 25th, 1776; the night they joined Washington crossing the Delaware. On that fateful Christmas night, not a single patriot died from a Hessian musket ball or bayonet, yet two left this world because they had exhausted their body fat stores and could no longer maintain their core temperature. They spent all they had for liberty. What say you?