The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

The reason I fall to my knees in
prayer for our nation...

When I was eleven years old my teacher (a.k.a. my mom) had me read the full text of the Star Spangled Banner to a group of homeschoolers. I was amazed, as were many of them, that there are actually four stanzas to the song, each just as beautiful as the first.  "The Star-Spangled Banner" was made the national anthem on March 3, 1931. 

In the last stanza of the poem you will find these words: And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." My prayer for our nation is that we would remember our national motto and live like we believe it.

May God bless the United States of America and may we continue to forever be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The Star Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key




The fireworks over the
lake this evening. Do you
see all the boats?

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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through 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 through 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 in 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!

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 washed 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!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power 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!