O Ship of State

I heard this poem today and it actually made me cry. (but at this present time it really does not take much......a lack of chocolate is sure to do it..) I heard how the first four lines were penned on a piece of paper in Franklin Roosevelt's hand, and given to Winston Churchill on one of the darkest days of the beginning of WWII. No one thought that Britain would survive... no one except Winston Churchill. Read it as a Mother of young children and realize that Motherhood as we know it, will not survive if we do not nurture our calling and serve the Lord to our fullest ability in our homes. Even if no one else believes in Motherhood, in staying home and raising children, and looking at even the menial tasks of running a productive home as service to the Lord............. I will be like Winston Churchill. I will believe it will survive.

O Ship of State

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, Strong and great!
Humanity with all it's fears,
With all it's hope of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee,- are all with thee!

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Okay, now go BACK and read it all again, and make some spiritual applications. The world will beat on you and say that you are "free" when you are serving an employer and a "slave" to serve your husband. That's okay, it's just a wave, a flapping of your sail. We know WHO created Motherhood, and we know that he framed it to outlast all that the world can throw against it. Oh, and those "false lights on the shore," are exactly that......false. There is no more noble calling than to guide the home and teach your children, than serving your husband. Look if you will, if you must.....but you will find that in years that you have wasted, what you were looking for was right at home, and you will seek the soft light of home once again. I can hear Mothers of years gone by repeating slowly the last few lines:

"Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, - are all with thee!"

Just a thought........Keep on keepin' on Mothers.