America the Beautiful

O 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!

I cherish this song. I’ve known it since I was a tiny tot. I can sing it much better than I can The Star-Spangled Banner. But, sadly, I don’t think children are learning this song today. Actually, I don’t think a lot of them are being taught The Star-Spangled Banner. Which breaks my heart. In half.

Confession: This song has four verses. I’d be hard-pressed to sing the other three for you—without help. Without cheating and looking at the words. In fact, it might prove to be impossible. I do believe, if I could force you to hear me sing it right this very minute, you’d say I did a surprisingly good job! Winky. Wink.

I looked up the song’s history. It was originally written as a poem by Katharine Lee Bates. In 1893. It was put to music, which was composed by Samuel A. Ward, in 1910. I hope they know how much I love them for giving me proud chills every single time I hear it. Sing it. Feel its "majesty."

On this Fourth of July, 2017, I pray to our Dear Lord God Almighty to bless and protect our United States of America. There is way too much to worry about lately. So much hatred. Violence. Conflict. Enough. I fear for our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

This IS a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL country with wonderful, kind, good, hard-working citizens. I pray to God we can restore our country’s Christianity—with God’s Amazing Grace.

Sending BIG RED, WHITE and BLUE smooches and hugs to each of you this afternoon. Wherever in the World you are!

A Texas Yankee Doodle ELC