Mighty Nation

SongsByMike

Mighty Nation

“We are now a mighty nation,” declared Abraham Lincoln, in a noteworthy speech on July 10, 1860, as he sought for the presidency, and sought to turn the minds of this nation to follow its “ancient faith” that “all men are created equal.” An earnest examination of history will teach us that true and lasting prosperity in the land can only follow the honoring and obeying of its Creator.

I was asked by our stake young women leaders to write a song that they might use in their Girls Camp this summer. They have adopted a patriotic theme and wanted something that could help them to realize their responsibility as the “rising generation.” They shared with me some of their thoughts and wanted to see what I could do. There are some obvious predispositions toward the inspired primary song “We’ll Bring the World His Truth” by Janice Kapp Perry, as it focuses on the battle for freedom that now is taking place, similar to that battle fought by the Army of Helaman. As is the case with all of the songs on this website, it currently exists in a very “demo” state, but I hope to be able to hear it in a different form, as the voices of the rising generation blend to declare this message to the nation and the world. As I post this, we are nearing another Independence Day celebration on July 4. I hope that we may always remember how truly blessed we are in this country and why.

Post Script: (8/9/08) Our Stake Young Women came back from Girls Camp and I heard many wonderful comments about this song. Someone took some video of the last night when they sang some songs and this one was included. I got my hands on it and decided I needed to include the audio here (see link above). It is not the greatest recording, and I still look forward to hearing it live some time, but it was exciting to hear it sung by a big group of faithful youth – it makes the message seem that much more meaningful. You may be able to hear the thunder in the background at various points during the performance, as there was a big storm raging outside while they were gathered together for their singing; I don’t know about you, but the analogies that could be drawn from this were not lost on me.

Lyrics:

History… teaches us all we need to know:

Obedience… will free us from our foes;

Freedom’s not free; we must pay the price of liberty.

Chorus

Like warriors of old, fearless true and bold,

We’re the rising generation.

We’ve been armed with truth; we’ll battle in our youth

To keep this mighty nation free.

Stories of heroes… show us what it takes to win

Helaman, Moroni… and they that fought with them

Knew that freedom’s not free; they stayed true to the title of liberty.