George Washington

He was born into a prosperous Virginia farming family. During the course of his life he was, by turns, a surveyor, a planter, and a soldier. A lack of information about his childhood fueled many of the stories that were later told by ambitious and over-reaching biographers. Included in those tales that were subsequently questioned is the famous story of an honest boy and an injured cherry tree.

His early education is better documented. Although the young homeschooled Virginian studied math, geography, Latin and the English classics, the skills he learned from his acquaintances with local backwoodsmen, along with the lessons gained from the foremen on his family’s plantation, proved more valuable to him in later years.

The famous Virginian’s service as a Commander during the American Revolution, in the face of overwhelming military odds made him a hero in the eyes of a young continent whose citizens were fighting to establish their own national identity. Afterwards, though he was more than willing to retire peacefully and farm, he answered the call of his young nation and on April 30, 1789, George Washington, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States.

You would recognize his nickname, “the father of our country,” but did you know that George Washington once quelled a movement to declare him king of the newly freed people? Instead of creating a military dictatorship, George Washington worked to create a government unlike any the world had ever known—a government for the people, by the people.

Today’s quote from the first president of these United States of America was recorded two centuries ago, and it would behoove us to let it speak to us today. George Washington once said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

~Shellie