On this Election Day and as Veterans’ Day and Thanksgiving approach this month, my heart has been filled with gratitude for  our country’s founding father George Washington. Recently I learned how prayerful and faithful President George Washington was, and how his mother Mary Washington bathed our new country in prayer each day.

On a recent trip to Virginia to visit friends, I took my first tour of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, as well as Mary Washington’s home in Fredericksburg, VA. The home and grounds were lovely. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how deep the faith was of both George and his mother Mary. Even on the museum at Mt. Vernon, you are given an opportunity to place your hand on the Bible and repeat the words George Washington did as our first President. Scripture is carved and engraved throughout his burial site and home.

After leaving Mt. Vernon, we headed to Fredericksburg, VA to see where George Washington grew up and where his mother lived. President George’s mother Mary was married to Augustine and was widowed at a young age. She raised seven children. While the Revolutionary War was being fought, Mary lived in Fredericksburg, VA. She frequently prayed near her home at a landmark called Meditation Rock, where she is buried today. She prayed for her son and our country.

George Washington had served as commander of the Colonial Forces and led to win the British claim to America. George came to visit his Mother Mary just days before his presidential inauguration in New York City. Their meeting on March 12, 1789, was the last visit before her death from breast cancer three months later.

George and his mother met in her bedroom sitting area and George gave her the poignant news that he had been selected to lead our new country as its first president of the United States. The Mother of our country placed her hand on his head as he knelt before her. She gave her final blessing and told him that “Heaven’s and his Mother’s blessing would always be with him.” They embraced at her bedroom door and said tearful goodbyes.

Their family was focused on prayer and meditation on God. Divine intervention saved George Washington many times. One glowing instance is his narrowly escaped death in Pittsburg on an expedition to overwhelm the Native American stronghold. Washington had been sick in bed for 10 days, weak as he fought. Four bullets passed through his coat. Two different horses had been shot out from under him.

He was also the last of 20 officers to command their small army before they won. He said, “The all powerful protection of Providence had saved him.”

I visited Meditation Rock myself. It is located on a cliff that now overlooks a city playground. Mary Ball Washington’s memorial, a mini-Washington monument obelisk, is a few yards away from the rock.

I knelt and prayed. I felt the cool rock under my knees, rock worn smooth from hundreds of years of kneeling prayers. I thanked God for our country, for Mary, who represents so many of our praying mothers, and for our faithful first president George Washington. He, led by the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, gave us roots and wings as a nation. I prayed for unity and revival in our country today. I asked for forgiveness for the times I have been silent.

I prayed for the Deborah’s Voice Prayer Gathering I planned to attend at the Lincoln Memorial the next day where 2500+ Christian women gathered to pray for unity of our nation (www.deborahsvoice.net). I prayed for our President, Congressmen, state, city, and local officials, pastors of our churches, and those who are unbelievers.

I lingered there after my prayer, imagining Mary Washington kneeling in the same spot and crying out to God for her son and her fledgling country. What a strong and courageous woman she was. I considered that just like Mary, our circumstances will be hard and uncertain. We too will discover, like Mary, that prayer moves God’s heart into action and intercession is vital in this crucial time in our country before Jesus returns.

No matter where you and I stand politically, we have much to learn from George Washington’s deep faith as a leader. He exemplified the four points of this Old Testament life verse for our nation:
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”—2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

1. Humble ourselves—George Washington was a quintessential humble leader. In the museum at Mt. Vernon, he said “Good moral character is the first essential in a man.”
2. Pray—President Washington was prayerful, as demonstrated in the examples above.
3. Seek God’s face—President Washington was dependent on the Lord and His Word, the Bible, through the years.
4. Turn from our wicked ways—President Washington was known for his good moral character and manners. When he was a boy in Virginia, he hand-copied a list called “The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” The rules were written almost 150 years before by French Jesuits—priests and teachers in the Catholic Church—and passed on from generation to generation. The rules covered everything from how to have good table manners, how to respect other people, how to be a good citizen, even how to sit, stand, talk and what expression to have on your face.

May we do the same as American citizens and leaders. May we humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways, THEN God will hear us from heaven and will forgive our sins and heal our land. Amen and Amen.

PS. My gifted fine artist friend Dale Glasgow painted the two poignant moments I describe—one entitled “Mother’s Blessing of George Washington” and the other of “Mary Washington Praying at Meditation Rock.” His work is hanging in the White House and the Smithsonian Museum. You can purchase these giclees or prints on his website at www.daleglasgow.com.

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” –1 Corinthians 3:11