Who was America’s most intelligent president? That’s a matter of conjecture and involves a good deal of personal opinion, but whenever the question is debated, rarely does anyone ever mention Harry Truman. He didn’t attend college, in marked contrast to his predecessor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Harvard and Columbia prodigy with vast brainpower. Truman was often called “the little man from Missouri,” which was meant to denigrate more than his physical stature. Biographer David McCullough writes that Truman “knew he had no exceptional intellectual prowess,” and recounts him telling a colleague, “I am not a deep thinker as you are.”

O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.

Proverbs 8:5

But Truman, historians now recognize, was tremendously effective. He rose at five a.m. every morning, he didn’t pass the buck, he made the difficult decisions, and never pretended to be someone he wasn’t.

It doesn’t require a genius to follow the guidance of the Proverbs. Prudence, good sense, caution, honesty, and hard work are traits available to anyone, including you. The Lord will effectively use whatever you have. On Truman’s first day in office, he started by asking Americans to pray for him. As you lift up your modern-day leaders, pray they, too, will recognize what – and Who – is essential to success.

Recommended Reading: I Peter 4:7-11