“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

With these words, America’s founding principles were set in motion: rights are inherent to our humanity and they predate government, but government exists to secure those rights, and liberty must be guarded by each generation.

Since its inception, America has built extraordinary wealth. Not merely financial wealth, but civilizational wealth. It is the accumulation of our principles, institutions, sacrifices, traditions, laws, and hard-earned lessons, since the Declaration’s publication in 1776.

This July 4th, as America turns 250 years old, I invite you to reflect on the inheritance that is America. Although flawed in many ways, this inheritance retains extraordinary value.

That is not to say our American inheritance is perfect. No inheritance is. Every inheritance contains both assets and liabilities. America’s story includes wounds as well as victories, contradictions as well as ideals, failures as well as achievements. But the presence of flaws does not erase the value of that inheritance. In many ways, it makes the work of stewardship more serious.

Our task, as current stewards, is not to pretend the inheritance is flawless. Nor is it to squander it because it is flawed. The task is to understand what has been received, preserve what is good, repair what is broken, and pass forward something stronger than what was handed to us.

That is true in families. It is true in business. It is true in personal finance. And it is true of nations.

Families build wealth over generations through sacrifice, discipline, prudence, gratitude, and long-term thinking. They lose wealth when they forget those habits. Nations are not so different. A country can inherit great institutions and still weaken them. It can inherit liberty and still take it for granted. It can inherit prosperity and still consume more than it produces. It can inherit traditions and still forget why they matter. It can inherit freedom and still fail to form citizens capable of preserving it.

This is why America’s 250th birthday feels especially important. We are not celebrating in a moment of perfect unity or easy confidence. Many Americans sense that we are living through a turning point. Technology is changing virtually every aspect of our lives. Institutions are strained. Trust is low. Debt is high. Families and communities feel weaker and our politics are bitter.

In moments like this, a nation must remember what it is.

America is not merely a government, a market, or a piece of geography. It is an inheritance that is held in trust. It belongs not only to those living today, but also to those who came before and those who will come after. We are but temporary stewards of something we did not create ourselves.

Because we did not stand at Bunker Hill. We did not sign the Declaration. We did not cross the Delaware, nor did we frame the Constitution. Long gone are those who defended New Orleans, fought at Gettysburg, and tamed the western frontiers. Few living among us today stormed Normandy, marched at Selma, or built the interstate highways.

That should make us humble. It should also make us grateful, as we simply appeared and inherited the results. We inherited treasures we did not earn, along with debts we did not personally incur and wounds we did not cause. The question is what we will do with them.

Will we preserve constitutional liberty? Will we teach our children the value of freedom? Will we strengthen families and communities? Will we practice responsibility rather than entitlement? Will we remember that prosperity requires discipline, trust, and patience? Will we leave behind a country worthy of those who sacrificed for it?

The American experiment has never depended on perfection. It has depended on renewal. Again and again, America’s best moments have come when the nation remembered its first principles and struggled back toward them.

So, as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, we should do so with gratitude and seriousness. Gratitude for the extraordinary inheritance we received and seriousness about the responsibility to steward it well. The America we received will not be the America we pass on.

May we remember well, steward faithfully, and pass forward an America worthy of the sacrifices that made it possible. Happy Independence Day, and may God bless the United States of America.