July 4th is Independence Day in the United States, a time when US citizens celebrate their right to self-government and self-directed sovereignty.

There’s an even greater freedom than political and religious rights, though, that people the world over can celebrate. It’s the right to think spiritually.

No dictator, ruler or government can stop us from being spiritually minded. Whether the despot we dread takes the form of a king, a disease, a boss, a debt, a fear, or an unknown, our thinking is under our own control. We can choose to love. We can choose to think spiritually.

I heard a story once of a prisoner of war who spent an indefinite number of years in a dark cramped prison cell. To help maintain his sanity he etched the initials CT in the wall of his cell. The letters reminded him to Control Thought. He was not going to let the brainwashing tactics of his captors send his thinking into a downward spiral.

He daily prayed to stay spiritually minded and knew he could make that choice.

He knew there was one Mind over all,–the divine Mind,–and he proclaimed the one Mind to be his Mind. He understood that the one Mind was not influenced by people, places, or events in the world, and since the one Mind was his Mind, he could not be influenced by his captors, his prison environment and war circumstances either. He survived and eventually went home free with his sanity intact.

Paul wrote, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Mary Baker Eddy responded with “Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free!”

You are a child of God. I am a child of God. We are all children of God, and as offspring of the one Father-Mother, we do not have to bow down to any mental despots. We live to serve God, the one harmonious, peaceful and healthy Mind.

Declare your independence from any mental despots and be free today! There’s no better time.