Reflection
Today our country is celebrating President’s Day. With our country so divided politically we look for leaders who set the common good above their party divisions and personal ambitions, and who set an example for others. We need those who can consider the problems of this nation and the sufferings of its people with open minds, courage and the desire to solve problems with integrity and will. We need leaders with wisdom and strength to unite the members of government in a common purpose. We can never accept less. As citizens we have the responsibility to open our eyes, soften our hearts and heal our divisions. We can never make the mistake of taking our freedom and our ideals for granted. Only with personal awareness and tenacity can we continue to seek freedom and justice for all.
Prayer
God of justice and love, today we pray that you will bless our country and guide its leaders.
Action
Be aware of events in Washington and be well educated on the positions and voting records of your representatives at the national level. Make informed decisions and not ones influenced by incomplete or slanted information and blind party loyalty.
Suggested Reading
Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.
Exodus 18:21
But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant.
Luke 22:26
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.
Phil.2:3
Be leaders wherever it behooves you to be. Leaders of thought, leaders of action, leaders of joy, leaders of hope, leaders of the construction of a better world.
Pope Francis
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
George Washington
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
Abraham Lincoln
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit
Harry S. Truman
A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.
John F. Kennedy
For leadership there is only one road: service. There is no other way. If you have many qualities, the ability to communicate, etc , but you are not a servant, your leadership will fail, it is useless, it has not power to gather [people] together… Leadership must enter into service, but with a personal love for the people.
Pope Francis