Socrates wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Benjamin Franklin, American author, scientist and diplomat, must have been thinking along those lines as he penned his own eulogy: “The body of Benjamin Franklin, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.”

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

I Corinthians 11:28

Biographies about American public servants are abundant. Many leaders today chronicle more than their own eulogy, some attempting to rewrite themselves as they would prefer to be perceived. However, today’s verse compels people to consider their days not in the light of history, but in the light of the Creator.

As you pray today for America’s leaders, give thanks for the men and women of the nation’s past that lived public lives of faith and dignity. Pray for those currently holding the governmental reins to humbly consider themselves with respect to that great heritage and in the light of the all-powerful God, the Author of all things.

Recommended Reading: Lamentations 3:31-41