God Bless America

In all this celebrating the independence of our country, I've had some interesting thoughts. At the park program in Thatcher, we all sang the song "God Bless America". One line of the song goes "Stand beside her, and guide her/Through the night with a light from above". As I sang it, I kind of started to cry, and I thought to myself "that is exactly what our country needs right now". We need that guidance from God to remain the free and righteous land we were created to be. Then, on Sunday, we sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" for our closing hymn in church. We sang the not-often-heard third verse that goes like this:

"Oh! thus be it ever, when free men shall stand,

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation,

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, "In God is our trust."

I had no idea the third verse had such an important message to it. If our country trusts in God, and we are trying to do what's right, we will conquer, we will not fail, because we will have the Lord's help. It also acknowledges that our Heavenly Father had a great part in the creation and preservation of our country. It was not just luck that we gained our freedom. With a message like that in our country's national anthem, how can some believe that we are "a Godless nation"?

Go to my sister Emily's blog for her thoughts that are very similar to mine. What she wrote in her post titled "How's that thread holding?" is incredible. It's the top one on my blog list.