Happy Independence Day!

I always enjoy it when the 4th falls on a Sunday.  We get to sing the patriotic songs at church that we don't usually sing.  I love that we sing the Star Spangled Banner before sporting events, and at Starlight (is it before all plays?) but I am sorry that we only know and sing the first verse.  I always forget that there are more verses and what they say. 

We were at Starlight a couple of weeks ago, and saw Little House on the Prairie, the Musical.  I know how it sounds, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.  It made me want to go back and read Laura Ingalls Wilder's books again.  Anyway, that is the point.  The point is that we were running a few minutes late, and were still in line for concessions when The Star-Spangled Banner began to play.  It took me a moment to realize what was going on, but once I did, I turned towards the flag (couldn't see it from my location), put my hand on my heart, and sang in my head.  I would have sung outloud, but you would have been able to hear me, and it wouldn't have been pretty.  But I was singing in my heart and in my head.  I was surprised to see how many people around me didn't take their hats off.  One guy who was in line next to me actually looked annoyed that the concession workers stopped working and were also paying respect to the flag and the anthem.  I was surprised and disappointed by that. 

I enjoyed the singing at Church today though, because we got to sing all three verses of our National Anthem.  And we sang various other patriotic songs.  Most of these I know the first verse, and maybe an additional verse or two, but I don't know any of all of them.  I want to change that, and learn them all.  I am proud to be an American.  I'm proud of the freedoms that we have and the independence that we enjoy.  It has been a long hard road to get to where we are, and I am so grateful for the things that I get to take for granted and have in my life every day.  I am proud an in awe of the individuals who sacrifice so much of themselves in serving us and our country.  I know that we have our flaws and that sometimes we make mistakes or do more harm than good.  But I also believe that as long as we try to better ourselves and our world, we learn and become better, even if only a little bit.  I am proud to be an American, and to celebrate our Independence Day.

The Star-Spangled Banner
1. Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there.
Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

2. On the shore, dimly seen thru the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
’Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

3. Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved 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, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

My Country, 'Tis of Thee
1. My country, ’tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From ev’ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

2. My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills.
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

3. Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

4. Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!

America the Beautiful
1. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

2. Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

3. Oh, beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine.

4. Oh, beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

I love these words. So poetic and so powerful.  Very idealistic, but I think something worth believing in and worth striving for.