The Star Spangled Banner

I recently bought a new CD by the Manheim Steamroller that is all patriotic music. We listen to it in the car everywhere we go, My girls love it! There is a song on the CD about the Pledge of Allegiance and Paige has to have it turned up really loud so she can say the Pledge with the radio, and the very last song on the album is Battle Hymn of The Republic and she loves how it has "drums with little flutes" in the background.  The first song on the album is The Star Spangled Banner and it's an instrumental version. Well, Paige noticed that I was singing and wanted to know why I was singing because there weren't any words to sing to. So I explained to her what song it was and so now every time it comes on she asks me to sing it for her so she can hear the words.  Sometimes I have a really hard time even getting through it, I tear up every time I hear it and sing it. But, I think it's important for her to hear it so she can learn it too. 

So, I've been thinking about that song quite a bit lately and there's a lot more to the song than everyone sings. There are 3 verses in our Hymn books with scripture references as well. So I thought I'd write them down for everyone to just read through and remember what  a great Country we live in.

The Star Spangled Banner

Text: Francis Scott Key 1779-1843

Music: John Stafford Smith, 1750-1836

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?

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!

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!

Isn't it a beautiful song! It's so poetic too. If you read it and pay attention to the punctuation it takes on a whole new feeling! What excitement people must have felt in those days to know that they'd just won their...our...freedom!  We have the flag because George Washington went to Betsy Ross and asked her to make a flag for his forces to fight for.  They needed something physical to get behind after suffering loss after loss after loss. It is truly a part of our history as a Nation. It stood for something back then, and I hope still stands for something now!

The scripture references in the Hymn book are 1 Nephi 13:17-19 which references Nephi's vision he had of the discovery and colonizing of America, and Alma 46:12-13 where Moroni raises the title of Liberty. Awesome scriptures and proof again that this Country is God's Country. He brought it into existence for a specific purpose to restore his Gospel to the earth and give man the chance to live truly free, as they should.  

I plan on sharing with Paige and Daisy, as they get older and start understanding things more, that there is a reason they naturally loves this kind of music. It's not only beautiful, but the words behind the music are AWESOME! They are about true events in our Country's past and are of Godly inspiration. I think you can literally feel the Spirit inside you when you listen to patriotic hymns. I'm glad that they are responding to it like I would hope most people would and do, and look forward to helping them become proud, yet humble (realizing that the freedoms we enjoy are not passed automatically from generation to generation, they must be faught for and defended) citizen's of The United States of America.