In God We Still Trust: What America's 250th Anniversary Means to a Person of Faith

By Crystal Virgin

"Turning to God in hard times is its own kind of patriotism. It says we have not forgotten where our help comes from."

I'll be honest — I don't consider myself someone with strong political opinions.

But put on a patriotic hymn in a room full of people, and I'm the one trying not to cry in the third row.

There's something that happens when the music swells and the words land — America, America, God shed His grace on thee — that bypasses whatever walls I've built and goes straight to something deeper. It's not politics. It's not pride in the chest-thumping sense. It's something quieter than that. A feeling of gratitude so large I don't quite have words for it. Gratitude for the country I was born into, yes — but more than that, gratitude for the God who I believe had a hand in it.

A Country Founded on Something Larger Than Itself

This year, the United States turns 250 years old. And whatever your feelings about the current state of the nation, there is something worth pausing on in that number.

The men who founded this country were imperfect — history makes that clear. But they were also reaching toward something beyond themselves. The language of the founding documents is unmistakably spiritual. They appealed to a Creator. They grounded human dignity not in government but in God. They built into the framework of this nation the freedom to worship, to speak, to believe — freedoms that were not guaranteed anywhere else in the world at the time.

As Latter-day Saints, we believe that was not accidental. The Restoration of the gospel needed a place to happen, and the Lord prepared one. America, with all its flaws and all its promise, was part of that preparation.

In God We Trust — Still

There's a phrase so familiar we've nearly stopped hearing it: In God We Trust.

It's on our currency. It's carved into our public buildings. And for 250 years, it has represented something true about the best version of this country — that we are not self-sufficient, that we are dependent on something higher than ourselves, that our freedom is not self-generated but God-given.

I think about this especially in hard seasons. When things feel uncertain — in the world, in our communities, in our own homes — the instinct to turn to God is not weakness. It's the most American thing we can do. It honors the vision of those who built this country. It honors the soldiers who defended it. And it honors the God who, I believe, has always been watching over it.

Turning to God in hard times is its own kind of patriotism. It says: we have not forgotten where our help comes from.

Bringing It Into the Home

One of the things I love most about this time of year is the impulse to make it visible — to put something in your home that reflects what you believe and what you're grateful for.

That's what inspired our Freedom 250 collection. Each piece is laser engraved into wood and framed by hand — the same craftsmanship we put into every temple replica we make. The Declaration of Independence design pairs the words of the founding document with an American flag, framed and ready to hang. The Land of the Free Because of the Brave piece carries that phrase in a distressed flag design that feels both timeless and deeply personal.

They're not decorations. They're reminders. The same way a temple on the shelf quietly points your family toward covenants, a piece like this points toward gratitude — for freedom, for faith, for the people who made both possible.

250 Years, and Still Trusting

America is not perfect. It has never been. But it has always been, at its best, a nation that believed in something beyond itself — that looked to God in moments of founding, of crisis, of celebration, and of grief.

Two hundred and fifty years is worth marking. Not with noise, but with reflection. With gratitude. With a quiet recommitment to the values that have always made this country worth loving.

In God we still trust. Now and always.