The truly great men and women of our “collective past” remain largely unknown while we revere silly girls who shave their heads and make heroines of the Anna Nicole Smiths of the world. We pay actors and actresses, sports icons and CEOs exorbitant salaries and keep our schoolteachers on short rations. We still have great thinkers who share their wisdom based on their knowledge and experience but we listen to maudlin actors who have no basis for their statements except their celebrity status.

We need not venerate the past but if we are to survive as a nation we had best remember it. To ignore the lessons of history will insure that we repeat our mistakes. Let’s revisit the Father of our Country.

Washington was a farmer and a soldier. From a middle class family in Virginia, he learned his surveying trade while still a teenager. He made his fortune the hard way; he worked for it. He began his soldiering with the British Army in their fight against the encroachment of the French and their allies, the Indians of the northwest. I use the term Indian without apology since that is what history called them. It was not then and is not today a derogatory term but a mistake in location made by the early explorers. Washington’s heroic actions and fearless service brought him fame as a soldier and he learned the ways of war.

From 1776 to 1781 he commanded the Continental Army of this fledgling nation. He lost battles along the way but won the war at Yorktown when his command received the sword of surrender from General Lord Cornwallis. He took his leave from his army and returned to Mt. Vernon to his first love, farming. Beyond any doubt he was the most popular man in the colonies and in that popularity the most influential. As the nation struggled to find itself he could have made himself king and given the monarch absolute power. Not many, then or now, would have turned down this opportunity.

When he learned that some of his former staff officers were planning a coup to make him king, he repudiated their efforts and refused to restore the very autocracy that they had fought against for so many years. When word of his refusal came to King George III, he is reported to have said, “He is the greatest man alive.”

In 1789 Washington was called upon again to lead his country. He left Mount Vernon for New York City, the seat of the U.S. Government to assume the office of President of the United States. He would serve eight years establishing a firm foundation for this new nation.

His most important characteristic was his simple faith. George was a godly man. He was a Christian man. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in his life of prayer. President George Washington, September 17th, 1796: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible"

His prayer at Valley Forge: "Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me, Thy servant, who humbly prostrates myself before Thee.

Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus."

As George Washington said, Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.

To the distinguished character of a patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian.

Lighthorse Harry Lee summed it up by saying, “George Washington, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”