Be Thou My Vision
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought in the day or the night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
Be Thou my Wisdom, be Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee, and Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one
Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight
Be Thou my armour and be Thou my might
Thou my soul's shelter, and Thy my high thower
O raise Thou me heavenwards, O power of my Power
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise
Thou my inheritence now and always
Thou and Thou only, Thou first in my heart
O High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art
High King of Heaven, when battle is done
Grant Heaven's joy to me, bright Heaven's Son
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall
O still be my vision, O ruler of all.
If you'll look at verse 2, it contains the line, Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son/ Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one which is what I would call the 'proper' version. The first version I heard, and I believe, the nearest/most accurate translation of the original gaelic. However, "I Thy true son" has caused a few problems. Some women in the (generic) church have said, it should be 'sons and daughters' because women are equal to men in God's eyes so there's no reason to include sons but not daughters. Other women say, whilst women and men are of equal importance, women and men are different, therefore it should be 'sons and daughters' to show that they are different and are not both 'sons'. Personally I don't think it makes that much difference. But yeah, because of this, the line in Be Thou has been changed. I've heard 2 versions... ' Thou my great Father and I Thy true heir/ Thou in me dwelling and I in Thy care', which is a bit simelar to the original, but IMO, sounds a bit rubbish. The other version is the one we sung in church today - 'Thou my great Father, and I Thy true child/ Once far away but by love reconcilled.' I don't know if it's more scriptural, but it isn't anything like the first version, which IMO is better. It just bugs me, but rant over.
I went to somebody's baptism tonight, in Bilston which is in W'hampton. It was a really nice service, I'm glad I went. :-)
I have another rant about MSN though - it wouldn't let me carry on using it without downloading the latest version - which I don't want. I don't want to make video/voice calls, I don't want to play games with people, I don't even want the moving icons/winks etc. I just want the bogstandard MSN that tells you if people are on or off line, and how many emails I've got. I don't want the new one that they made me get, but there you have it. Anyway, I think that's enough ranting for today. Good night