What about teaching your child a hymn that will spark her patriotic spirit?
While most school kids learn the first verse of “America, the Beautiful,”
few ever hear the next three verses. But before you start singing, first share
this story so your child will appreciate the words behind “America, the
Beautiful.”
Have you ever been on an exciting trip and couldn’t wait to tell your
friends about the adventure? Would you be able to describe the places you saw
and how you felt about each one? You might try to use words that would help
your friends picture an orange sunset or a sparkling ocean or a magnificent
mountain. One of the most inspiring hymns about our country came from a schoolteacher
who had such an experience.
In the summer of 1893, Katharine Lee Bates set out from her New England town
to travel across the country to teach summer school. She was an English teacher
at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and was delighted with the opportunity
to travel to Colorado.
Now I’m going to tell you why you should never go on a trip without a
pen and a journal: You may see something so wonderful that you’ll need
to write a poem about it! That’s what happened to Katharine Bates. One
of the stops on her journey was Chicago, Illinois. It was a huge city, ready
to grow. An architect had designed a white stone display of tall buildings,
showing what the city could look like when finished. Thinking about how the
white buildings would gleam in the sun, she grabbed her pen and wrote a verse
for the patriotic hymn “America the Beautiful.”
When she rode on the train past the wheat fields of the midwestern states,
Katharine wrote in her journal: “My New England eyes delighted in the
wind-waved gold of the vast wheat fields.” She must have been an excellent
English teacher to have spun words into a picture like that!
Have you ever seen the sky turn purple when the sun is setting? When you sing
this hymn, you will notice a colorful verse describing a sunset at Pikes Peak
in Colorado. Katharine Bates was so touched by the sight from the top of the
mountain that she turned this hymn into a prayer. She knew that a powerful God
was the Creator of the majesty and beauty she saw. In this hymn she prayed for
our land and the people in it. Katharine knew that only with God’s help
could Americans love each other and work together like brothers and sisters.
— Bobbie Wolgemuth
After sharing this story, ask your child if she would like to go on a colorful
trip through our nation. Suggest that when she sings this prayer for the people
and the leaders in our country, she pretend she’s on an enchanted ride
over America as she travels “from sea to shining sea.” Encourage
her to use her imagination and to keep her journal close by. She may decide
to write her own hymn!
Adapted from Focus on the Family's new book Hymns for a Kid's Heart by Joni Eareckson Tada and Bobbie Wolgemuth, copyright 2003. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois.
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