Bethel Focus                                                                                      A Magazine for Alumni & Friends of Bethel University

My Prayer for my Sailor Boys

by Signe Olson (1890-1963)

The following prayer was written by Signe Olson, grandmother of History Professor G.W. Carlson, when her two sons served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Signe Olson Peterson was a major Swedish poet in the Midwest during the first half of the twentieth century. She immigrated to Canada in 1911 from Sweden and to St. Paul in 1918. She married the Rev. E. B. Peterson, a Baptist General Conference pastor, and lived in Kerkhoven, Minn., for many years. More than 250 of her poems and essays in Swedish and English appear in books, journals, and eight different newspapers from Minnesota to Connecticut.

Oh count it not against me Lord, I pray,
That I two names have singled out,
To bring before the throne of grace each day,
And specially talk to Thee about.
For these two names are pointing out my boys
That were removed from home and friends
And called upon to serve, without a choice
And faced, with others, with supreme demand.

Thou knowest Lord that they are both Thine own
And thus I leave them in Thy care.
Help them to realize they are not alone,
But sense Thy presence everywhere.
Grant them Thy special strength to stand
However trying that may be.
And when their day is over, may they rest
Secure, and safely hid in Thee!

Prevent deceiving ways and forms of sin
They'd find displayed in wicked might,
From causing threatening doubts to enter in
And rob them of their faith in right.
Reveal Thy pleasure in some special way,
When challenge meets their loyalty
That they may know, that it will richly pay,
To serve, and keeping true to Thee.

What'er they may be called on to endure
Upon their home field, or abroad
May they be kept in faith, remaining pure
And never lose their hold on God!
And when this battle-cry has ceased to roar
And peace again has gained control
Lord bring them home to us once more
Unharmed to body and to soul!

So count it not against me Lord, I pray
For singling out just these two names.
They only represent the rest this day,
That's uppermost in all our aims.
And on that common ground I blend my voice
And take my stand to intercede,
With all the mothers of our precious boys,
That Christ may fill their every need.

Published in the Kerkhoven Banner,
Vol. 47, No. 30, March 9, 1945, p. 7.