Leadership Thought: A Suggestion of What to Do on This President’s Day.

Dear Friends

On this day, I thought it appropriate to direct our thoughts to one whose life stands front and center in the pantheons of presidents, and the one whose life established this Presidents' Day, day, our nation's first president, George Washington.

I have been reading Eric Metaxas Seven Men and Women and the Secret of Their Greatness and of the 7 great men he lists as having a lasting imprint on our nation and our world, he includes the likes of William Wilberforce, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul 11, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but at the top of the list he places George Washington.

Now a lot has been written and much has been debated regarding the faith of our founding fathers, some who were perceived to be agnostics, Deists, or Christians. In critiquing the faith of our first president there has been debate where his faith falls in this regard. Washington was never known to be outwardly expressive of his personal faith, (it has been said that there is hardly a letter that can be found which includes the mention of Jesus), but none the less, he was known to be a man who lived out a deeply held faith as commander and chief of our nation's first army and as our first president.

There is a well-known painting many of us may have seen of Washington kneeling in prayer beside his horse, but biographers have questioned this painting indicating that there was never any record of Washington ever done such a thing. Regardless of whether the painting was based on fact or fiction, there is no doubt but what he was a deeply religious man whose faith played a significant part in his decision making.

“Washington nephew, George Lewis, was an inadvertent witness to his uncle’s faith. He related what he saw to Washington's biographer Jared sparks, who wrote:

‘Mr. Lewis said he had accidentally witnessed (the general’s) private devotions in his library both morning and evening; That on these occasions he had seen him in a kneeling position with a Bible open before him and that he believed such to have been his daily practice.’” Seven Great Men and Women and The Secret of Their Greatness, Eric Metaxas, p. 36

Washington wrestled with the slavery issue for much of his adult life, but as Metaxas writes “On  July 1719 he finally made an important decision. He rewrote his will, not only freeing his slaves but also ensuring that the young ones would be taught to read, write, and learn a trade, and that the old and infirm ones would be taken care for the rest of their lives.” (Ibid. p.47)

Whatever his level of personal faith, and no matter how private it may have been it was certainly lived out in his actions and decisions and in his relationships with both friends and adversaries and most of all among the people he ruled as our first, and as many would proclaim, our greatest president.

On this President’s Day, may we take time to remember to pray for our President and all those who rule our land, and may our prayer be that almighty God would enable each of them to model the civility, courage, and compassion of President Washington, and may they, like him, fall on their knees as he as they seek His will for their lives and for the life of our nation.

Happy Presidents' Day.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom