All the Bible verses in this edition of The Presidential Prayer Team
for Kids Update are from The New Living Translation of the Bible.
 Click here to learn how to print this page.
  • How are YOU celebrating Presidents' Day this year?
  • How did George Washington see God's hand at work in America?
  • A presidential prayer YOU can use to pray for our country!

Things to pray for

  1. Pray for the President as he travels around the country. He is encouraging people to work together to solve some of the problems our country faces. Pray that people, especially our leaders, will put aside their differences and work together to make things better for everyone.
  2. With Presidents' Day coming up very soon, this is a great time to pray that all the kids and adults in our country will take time to honor the memories of two of our greatest presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We can pray that everyone will follow their example of reliance on prayer by setting aside some time to pray for our President and our country. Pray especially that people will sign up to pray for PPT's Virtual Prayer Rally and to host a Presidential Prayer Sunday in their churches. That will help to get a lot more people praying!

Leaders to pray for

Secretary of Energy—
Samuel Bodman
Samuel Bodman is our country's new Secretary of Energy. He is stepping in to lead now that Spencer Abraham has done such a terrific job for the last four years.

Mr. Bodman has a strong background in management and engineering, so he is really qualified for the job. He started out as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a professor!

In his position as Secretary of Energy, Mr. Bodman leads a team that makes sure our nation's energy supply and resources are safe and secure. His department is also involved in making sure that our environment is protected, both in getting and using energy resources. They work to develop new sources of energy for the future and to ensure that all Americans have safe, reliable and affordable supplies of energy for all their needs.

Secretary Bodman is from Massachusetts, but he has been in both the Departments of Commerce and Treasury. With his wife Diane he has three children and eight grandchildren. That's a lot of birthdays to keep track of!

Secretary of Veterans Affairs—
Jim Nicholson
Mr. Jim Nicholson is our country's new Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is taking leadership now, after four years of really great service by Anthony Principi who has stepped down.

Secretary Nicholson has a terrific background to do this job! He served in Vietnam as an Army Ranger and Paratrooper and did such a great job that he was honored with many awards, including the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantry Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry. You may not know what each of those represents, but we can tell you this--a person has to be very brave and a very good leader of others to receive those awards.

Mr. Nicholson is also an ambassador! That's right, he represented the United States to the Vatican for the past three years. He has also served his local community in Colorado with integrity and compassion.

It's good that he is a former member of the military, because in his job as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Ambassador Nicholson will be responsible for 25 million military veterans who served our country and preserved our freedom when we needed them. Now the VA must make sure we give them back what they need, including health care, retirement benefits and more. He will also be responsible for a department of over 230,000 employees! That's a lot of people, so Secretary Nicholson will really appreciate your prayers.

With his wife of 37 years, Suzanne, Secretary Nicholson has three children. He grew up in a small town in Iowa and attended West Point. His home has been in Colorado for several years. Photo courtesy of the White House.

Bible Verses of the week

For the Scriptures say, "If you want a happy life and good days, keep your tongue from speaking evil, and keep your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Work hard at living in peace with others. The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil."
—I Peter 3:10-12

Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great nation of yours? The Lord was pleased with Solomon's reply and was glad that he had asked for wisdom.
—I Kings 3:9-10

We hope you are as excited about Presidents Day as we are! In fact, here at The Presidential Prayer Team and The Presidential Prayer Team for Kids we are so excited that we are giving you lots of ways to celebrate!

What is a Presidential Prayer Sunday? Well, it can be just about anything from a prayer and announcement from your pastor to a whole service in the Sunday School or Worship hours. If you think a Presidential Prayer Sunday is an exciting idea, talk to your mom or dad or children's minister or youth pastor, and then check out our ideas and resources HERE.

 

What's a Virtual Prayer Rally?

A VPR could be about the neatest thing to happen in a long time! It's a way of using the Internet to honor God and help America—what could be neater than that?

Virtual means something that exists in a useful or practical way but doesn't have a true, touchable existence—like the Internet. It exists on the basis of its "virtue" rather than its reality...confused? That's okay. Hang in there.

Prayer means...well, we sure hope you know what prayer means. But just in case, prayer means talking and listening to God—conversing with Him and enjoying His presence. Prayer can be just you and God, or you and one other person and God, or you and a bunch of people and God, or you and millions of people and God. It doesn't matter how many people are praying to Him at once, because He has all the time in the world to hear each prayer and to respond with love, since He is outside of time!

Rally... A rally is a get-together of a group of people for the purpose of building enthusiasm, supporting a cause or encouraging a specific effort. If you've ever been to a pep rally at your school, you know what it's all about.

The Presidential Prayer Team for Kids (along with The Presidential Prayer Team) is sponsoring our second Presidents' Day Virtual Prayer Rally on Monday, February 21. We're calling kids, teens and adults across America to set aside a special time to pray for the President and the Nation. Now do you understand why it is called a
Virtual Prayer Rally?

The VPR will be virtual. It will be a real thing that happens in space and time. Everyone won't experience it in just the same way, but everyone will join with thousands of others and we'll all be praying to our loving God and Father!

The VPR will be all about prayer. Everyone's prayers will be brought together in heaven and on the Internet to call out to God for our President and our Nation. Wow! It makes you wonder what incredible ways He will answer!

The VPR will rally everyone who participates to get even more excited about prayer. It will build us all up and encourage us to pray more and more because of what we experienced in the VPR.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WAYS TO PRAY

It may seem a little unusual to connect something as modern and futuristic as an Internet-based prayer meeting to two men who lived a long time ago. But in a way it makes sense, because both were men of prayer. They prayed in all kinds of situations, both good and bad. No doubt, if Washington and Lincoln were alive today, they'd be joining in the fun and joy of the Virtual Prayer Rally.

Portrait of George Washington
courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

You may know about Presidents' Day—you may even know a lot about Presidents' Washington and Lincoln. Did you ever think to honor them by a day of prayer? It's a great idea because both men relied on prayer to help them through some of the most difficult days in our Nation's history.

Here are some examples of George Washington's reliance on prayer:

George Washington spoke often of God's help in defeating the British during the American Revolution. He was continually in awe of the ways he saw God helping the Americans with their freedom from Britain. On August 20, 1778, General Washington was in the midst of the war. He wrote a letter to his friend, Brigadier General Thomas Nelson of Virginia saying:

The hand of Providence (In Colonial times, you used the word "Providence" to refer to God) has been so conspicuous in all this (the course of the war) that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more wicked that has not gratitude to acknowledge his obligations; but it will be time enough for me to turn Preacher when my present appointment ceases.

If we said this in words used today, it would read something like this:

It's been so obvious that God's hand has been right here helping us through this entire Revolution. Anyone who doesn't believe that's true and doesn't thank God for His help isn't a very good person! But there will be plenty of time for me to turn into a preacher who tells of God's marvelous help for our troops once I no longer have to lead this Revolutionary Army!

This photo shows some men acting out a battle of the Revolutionary War. There were many occasions, large and small when General George Washington believed that God directly intervened to help Colonial Army in a miraculous way. Photo courtesy of battleroad.org.

George Washington documented carefully the many times that God helped his troops, even with weather conditions! On February 3, 1781, Cornwallis and his British troops were hot on the trail of the Americans as they crossed the Yadkin River in Pennsylvania. Just as the Redcoats were about to close in on the Americans, a sudden flood arose and prevented the Brits from crossing the river and capturing the Revolutionary troops. This kind of thing happened so often that once Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, Washington called for a service of thanks and praise to God with these words:

The commander-in-chief earnestly recommends that the troops not on duty should universally attend with that seriousness of deportment and gratitude of heart which the recognition of such reiterated and astonishing interposition of Providence demands of us.

Again, if we explain General Washington's feelings in words we use today, it would come out something like this:

As your Commander-in-Chief, I strongly recommend that any troops who are not on duty should set aside a special time to examine their hearts and minds and take time out to recognize the many times and ways that God Himself intervened and helped us. The kind of help He has given calls for this attitude of gratitude!

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

There are many other examples of George Washington's gratitude to God and his reliance on prayer. Here is one of George Washington's great prayers. It is a prayer for America, and in this prayer, Washington is asking God to bless our country by helping all of her citizens to be better Christians. As you read his words, see if you can identify the other concerns Washington prays for.

Almighty God: we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection: that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large and finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

That's a pretty cool prayer, isn't it? In fact, George Washington's Prayer for America is exactly the kind of prayer we can all be praying for our Nation! Let's take a look at it in closer detail, and perhaps we will get some ideas for how we can pray for America during the VPR.

QUESTION 1

When you think about the things that George Washington seems most concerned about for his country (after all, we pray about the thing that concern us, right?), which list would you say is most accurate?

  1. George Washington's prayer for America includes a plea that God will keep America all to Himself and not allow any other citizens to come in to the country.
  2. George Washington feels that most citizens should be allowed to do whatever they want, because that is the way to have happy Americans.
  3. George Washington asks God to draw the hearts of all Americans right to His own heart, in love and humility and submission.

QUESTION 2

When George Washington prays that God will "incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government" what do you think he means?

  1. He means that he wants everyone to do whatever the government says without questioning.
  2. He means that people won't really know how to govern themselves without help from other sources.
  3. He means that he wants citizens to be prepared to sacrifice their will for anything that would serve "the greater good"—meaning what is best for the good of the country.

QUESTION 3

George Washington mentions one "secret ingredient" that he prays for Americans to develop toward one another and toward their country. What is it?

  1. Absolute submission at all costs.
  2. Humiliation of one another.
  3. Love for each other and for their country.

QUESTION 4

As you read again George Washington's prayer for America, which things do you think really concern him so much that he brings them to God in prayer?

  1. He asks for the protection of God, the humility of all citizens and a spirit of love for one another.
  2. He asks God to help Americans to exercise the biblical virtues of justice, mercy, humility and calm.
  3. He asks that God will help him and all Americans to follow and imitate Him and His ways as well as His Son Jesus.

George Washington makes a direct reference to a really great Scripture verse from the Old Testament in his prayer (which is great, because God loves it when we pray; His Word back to Him!). Do you know where to find the verse? Click here to read.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone in America felt as strongly about our land being right before God, just like George Washington did? This year, with our Virtual Prayer Rally on Presidents' Day we will have the opportunity to pray in this way for the country—but we don't need to wait for Presidents' Day! We can pray this way every day for the country! We hope you'll take time to pray George Washington's prayer for America, and to tell your friends, parents and teachers about it!

I pray with all my heart that you will guard and protect the United States of America with your powerful arm and your mighty vision. I pray that you will turn the hearts of all the people in our country to love and honor You by thoughtfully obeying the laws of our country. Please help the spirit of love—the love that comes from You—to grow in our country, so that everyone appreciates and cares about each other just as you want us to. Help us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And help us all to love and appreciate our country more and more and to show it through good citizenship.

I pray that all the children, teens and adults in America will always do what is right in Your eyes, loving justice and mercy and behaving in humble and godly ways just like Jesus did. Make America a nation that is happy in You we ask with hearts full of faith, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Home | Sign Up | Downloads | Radio Program | Archives | Contact | Last Week
Presented by the sustaining partners of The Presidential Prayer Team.
© Copyright 2005 The Presidential Prayer Team, Inc.

INTERNET SECURITY NOTICE: For your safety, The Presidential Prayer Team for Kids will never phone or initiate personal correspondence. If anyone saying they are from The Presidential Prayer Kids contacts you (other than to respond to your question or request or to send you birthday greetings or updates), please tell your parents or the authorities. Never give your address, phone number or personal information to anyone you don't know (or anyone else on the Internet). Membership is free and members' names and email addresses will never be shared with any other entity or individual.

The Presidential Prayer Team for Kids is a division of The Presidential Prayer Team (www.presidentialprayerteam.org), a nonprofit, charitable organization. The Presidential Prayer Team is not affiliated with, nor does it receive funding from, any political party or office of the government.