My son is 13 yrs. old and he had a school assignment, his assignment was to write a paper about what patriotism meant to him. He told me about his paper and I asked him, "what does it mean to you?" (I was thinking to myself he doesn't even know what the word means) He actually told me he didn't know what the word meant. I asked him, "how can you write about it if you don't know what it means?" He thought about it for a long time and the following is his paper:
When this assignment was given concerning patriotism I didn't know what patriotism meant. I told my dad I had to write a paper on patriotism and he asked me if I knew the definition of the word patriotism. I told him no. He said that my paper would better if I knew what the word meant. I went to the dictionary and I looked up the word and the definition was, "Love that people feel for their country." I thought to myself do I feel that way. I love my mom, I love my dad, I love my brother, I love my grandparents. and I love video games. I wondered do I feel the same way about my country. I really thought about this and that made me start asking questions about patriotism to my family and friends. I asked them what was patriotism. I didn't quite understand all of the answers, but the answer that got my attention the most I will share.
Patriotism to most of the people I asked did represent the country except they talked about it in terms of the earth. They told me when you feel something in your heart you would be willing to make sacrifices for it. It's something you are proud of and that you would never want to be without it.
I thought about this for a long time before I started writing this paper. I though what do I feel passionately about in my heart? What do I feel proud of and what would I be willing to sacrifice for? When I thought about it the answer was so clear to me. I feel all of that for God. When I told my dad he said that made sense because every country on earth belongs to God and who better to be patriotic to. I'm not old enough to really understand what love of country is, but I have known for a long time the love I have for the Lord. If this is how patriotism is suppose to feel I know when I am old enough to understand it I will welcome it with all my heart.
