My New Hero

When I was a little girl I remember my Mom telling me a story about George Washington that fascinated me. Then when I was in middle school I remember reading a couple simple books on our Founding Fathers, and ever since then I have held a lot of respect for them and looked up to them. There is also this beautiful painting of George Washington praying in Valley Forge(this was not an isolated incident) that I have always LOVED and wanted in my living room when I ‘grew up’ that hopefully I will have a large print of in a prominent spot in my house one day.

I never really took the time to learn more about the Founding Fathers though until recently. After a conversation with one of my friends she recommended “The Real George Washington” to me. Her favorite Founding Father is Thomas Jefferson, but I told her that George Washington had always held a special place in my heart. I’m not sure why, maybe because of that story I heard as a little girl, but I was eager to read a book about him.
Briefly I’ll just say that this book is all about following the facts and dates of the events in his life- growing up, the revolutionary war, the constitutional convention, and his two terms of presidency, while constantly inserting quotes by him or people around him that have been taken from their personal letters and diaries. This book is not written in a biased way to try to sway the reader’s opinions in one way or the other. It’s just what was. And it does NOT leave out things like affairs with his slaves(who he didn’t like having, never selling a slave in his life so their families could be kept together, and then set free in his will), because frankly that is not something he would have ever done or even thought of doing and there is absolutely nothing documented anywhere in any letter or diary or anything in history that even hints at such a thing.

But anyways, I digress, and I’m not trying to promote this book. I really just feel compelled to share some thoughts of mine. Learning more about George Washington was an incredible experience for me. Reading what kind of man he was- that’s really all this book is about really. None of these key things in our history would have happened if it weren’t for the man that he was. I seriously respect him now as much as I respect any of the prophets of God, and can say that I believe without a shadow of a doubt that he was called in the preexistence to do what he did during his life. I get so excited just thinking about everything I read and how it all came together. Now if someone asked me “If you could meet one person(besides our Savior), who ever lived on this earth, who would it be?” I would say George Washington! I know that he was a man of God, that he was set apart and preserved for his mission on earth, and that he lived an amazing, AMAZING life that we should all have respect, and in my case, awe, for. I love that man!