Patriotism, Hymns and Faith

Just a reminder that the Spirit of the Founding Father's Vision for this country does live on in our nation today. This video is incredible. Please share it with anyone who will appreciate it, and even a few who won't! Our God is marching on!

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

A Day That Started Out Like Any Other Day.... A Day That Changed The World

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On September 11, 2001, I was in my truck at my friend Amy's house when a local radio personality came on stating that a plane just flew into the World Trade Center in New York City. I was dropping off my son that day before I headed off to work. He was homeschooling at the time and stayed at their house while I was at work to do his studies.

Even the other people on the radio thought he was kidding - it was just so unthinkable. But, then as time passed and the reports confirmed... It became clear that the unthinkable was indeed true. I made a phone call to my dad as I drove to the school where I worked. At that time I worked a few miles from Alliance Airport and the realization that D/FW and the Fort Worth Joint Air Base were within a 30 mile radius was not lost on me. He was an air traffic controller in those days and I felt that if anything serious had happened he would know.

He was sleeping. He awoke and I told him three times that planes were flying into the World Trade Towers... He finally awakened enough to grasp what I was saying and asked, "In Dallas?"

"No, Daddy. In New York City." I paused as I thought about the people in those buildings. "Turn on the news, Daddy. Tell me what is going on." Panic was setting in, even though the attacks were many miles away from the place I called home. My father turned on the news and watched them replay footage of the second plane flying into Tower 2.

"Sugar, what is going on?" I could hear the confusion - the panic in his voice. "We are at war."

We talked a few more minutes as the tears stung my eyes. Then he finally said, "Let me call you back I need to call in at work."

By the time I got to work, my supervisor had the news going on a local Christian radio station and a small television in her office. We went about our duties in the school kitchen listening and keeping our eyes on the television and our ears to the news as the third and fourth planes crashed. I had my children picked up early from school and hurried with the after lunch chores in the kitchen before rushing to pick up my children and get home.

One of the most staggering moments for me that day was standing in Donna's office and watching as first one tower and then the other fell. I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me and kept repeating through the sobs and streaming tears, "Oh God, please. What about all those people."

I watched the news coverage 24/7 it seemed like. I remember as they carried not just one but several people still alive out of the wreckage at Ground Zero days after the attack. I remember the haunting pictures of ashen covered people emerging from lower manhattan and the images of people walking and walking for miles on end to get out of New York City. Each day as the news replayed the images of what happened my heart not only stopped, it ached. I hurt for all the people who suffered the death of their loved ones - sons, fathers, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends. So many died that day - and in one fell swoop America and its people were no long safe.

The stories of heroism and the United Flight 93 passengers and crew who heroically gave their lives to prevent even more devastating and loss of life. They gripped my soul, and made me proud to be an American. Fear on every front, be we were still alive. I heard the cry out to God why He had allowed this to happen and Ann Graham Lotz's poignant words about how America was about the business of asking God to but out of our daily business and lives, but wondering why He didn't show up in crisis. It landed on me with fresh awareness that the shield of faith had been lowered in America because of the apostasy in our land. I prayed ardently and often for this nation and its leaders, for President Bush and the decisions he made. I prayed for the families and the funerals and thanked God that my family was safe.

The images of those days of September seven years ago will be etched in my memory until I die, but even more so the memories of those who stood to serve, to sacrifice and to fight for our freedom will be remembered in my prayers and my heart forever. God did not promise us a life free of tragedy, sorrow or pain... Yet, He promised to be the God who would see us through every dark moment to the place of glorious light. Psalms tells us that God trains our hands for battle and our fingers for war and Jesus Himself stated there would be wars and rumors of wars until He comes again. Ours is not always to know the why, the how or the when... But to trust with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength the WHO that promises to be faithful to us to the end. Pray, my friends, as this day wains on that we will not forget the lessons and the losses of September 11, 2001 and that we will never again be the country who takes our freedom and our responsibility to one another and God for granted again.

May God bless our troops who put their lives on the line, May He bless the families who continue to mourn and grieve and May He bless the coming elections and the legacy of George W. Bush - A man willing to stand against those who sought to destroy and restore a sense of safety and hope to America once again.

In Defense of Fort McHenry & the National Day of Prayer

I was on the internet today and found the following information from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for Kids website. With the talk I did last week about the nation's flag, I thought it would be interesting to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey has said. Read On!

This Thursday, May 1, 2008, is the National Day of Prayer!

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Star Spangled Banner
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(composed by Francis Scott Key, "In Defense of Fort McHenry" in September 1814. Congress proclaimed it the U.S. National Anthem in 1931 -- history follows.)

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

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On the shore dimly seen thro' 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:

'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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O, thus be it ever when freemen 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 preserv'd us as 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!

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History: In 1814, about a week after the city of Washington had been badly burned, British troops moved up to the primary port at Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. Frances Scott Key visited the British fleet in the Harbor on September 13th to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes who had been captured during the Washington raid. The two were detained on the ship so as not to warn the Americans while the Royal Navy attempted to bombard Fort McHenry. At dawn on the 14th, Key noted that the huge American flag, which now hangs in the Smithsonian's American History Museum, was still waving and had not been removed in defeat. The sight inspired him to write a poem entitled Defense of Fort McHenry; later the poem was set to music that had been previously composed for another song by a Mr. Smith. The end result was the inspiring song now considered the national anthem of the United States of America. It was accepted as such by public demand for the next century or so, but became even more accepted as the national anthem during the World Series of Baseball in 1917 when it was sung in honor of the brave armed forces fighting in the Great War. The World Series performance moved everyone in attendance, and after that it was repeated for every game. Finally, on March 3, 1931, the American Congress proclaimed it as the national anthem, 116 years after it was first written.

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I don't know about you, but I wish they had left the entire song in tact. After All, that last verse really says it all. Unfortunately, just as so many other things have been randomly challenged by our seemingly Godless culture- so, too, I am sure someone would take the National Anthem to the Supreme Court should it be used in its entirety. What a beautiful testimony to God's Sovereignty and the grace afforded this nation in battle. Written in a time when it was an honor and a duty to fight for one's country and the freedom of others.

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What has happened to our nation? Have we become a people so jaded by our own "selfish" values that we cannot see the need to defend the rights and needs of others for that same freedom? Our nation saw that need in the early 1900s when Europe was under seige. When the nations there were vying for their national sovereignty. Our men did not hesitate to enlist and go to war against those who would threaten their European allies. The same ally who had only 100 years before tried to take our nation and burned our capital. Where is that sense of duty, that sense of patriotism? What has happened to the country that our history books have told us about and our parents remember?

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Just as God called to the Israelites through His prophets - I cry out to our nation: Turn back, turn back to the God who will preserve us and protect us. The God in whom this nation was established and the God in whom our hope, our victory and our trust must still reside!

My heart aches as the National Day of prayer approaches. I want to challenge you to go out on May 1st and join with others this Thursday as we pray for our nation, our local and state governments and the future legacy and inheritance we will leave our children. Pray for this coming election and for God's will to be accomplished... PRAY FOR OUR NATION! Pray!

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For More Information about the National Day of Prayer, see this website: National Day of Prayer Task Force.