| Entreaties |
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A mother bows her worried head
and says a silent prayer.
For her child who took the oath,
and now serves "over there".
She asks that God be merciful
and keep her child from harm.
She doesn't want a folded flag
or little golden star.
A father pauses on the job
and wonders in his mind.
If lessons taught were good enough
or did he waste his time?
He prays that God return his child
mature and full of life.
Conscious now of freedom's cost,
paid by those who died.
A wife is praying by her bed,
her soldier far away.
"Keep him safe and from all harm,
don't take his life today."
Hot tears fall like raindrops now
upon her lips and chin.
She's counting down the days and months
until he's home again.
A small boy whispers softly
as he goes to bed at night.
"God please bring my daddy back,
so he can fix my bike."
"Let him read me stories
and tuck me into bed.
So I can go to sleep at night,
with good things in my head."
Out there in the desert
in some barren, wasted land.
A soldier takes his helmet off
and stares across the sand.
He prays to God for courage,
and years to grow so old.
He knows there ain't no atheist
down in no foxhole.
A sailor on a ship at sea
is lying in his rack.
He thinks of Noah's wooden ship
that had no screw or mast.
And in the book of Matthew
he reads of something odder.
Men out in a storm-tossed boat
and Jesus walked on water.
An airman climbs down from his plane
and prays on bended knee.
Thankful that he won his fight,
contending gravity.
Although he cannot touch God's face
as high and fast he flies.
Anywhere he turns his head
he looks Him in the eyes.
"I will fear no evil,"
says a proud U.S. Marine.
"For you, dear Lord, are with me,
and I've got my carbine!"
"With faith in Colt Repeating Arms
and God who lives above,
We'll win this war on terrorists,
and go back to Pendleton!" | By Ken B. Harper
Copyright 2006
Listed
September 28, 2007 |
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