Presidents Day has become one of the most overlooked holidays in our nation. Americans have dismissed it as nothing more than a day off or an inconvenience because the banks are closed.

Even more disconcerting is the attitude of this generation of Americans toward our former presidents, particularly George Washington, the Father of our country.

In June of 1773, God gave the United States of America the greatest American citizen in the history of our nation. His parents raised him under the auspices of the church and all of its virtues.

Washington did not have the formal education of his elder brothers in England, but he did attend the Lower Church School in Hartfield where he learned mathematics, trigonometry, and land surveying. He became a talented draftsman and map-maker all of which were integral in his development to become the greatest general in the Continental Army.

His steps were strategically ordered by the Lord to produce a leader among leaders while extolling the virtues of diligence, honesty, and patriotism. 

Washington was an extraordinarily heroic man who made rule by more ordinary mortals possible. He virtually created the presidency, and gave it a dignity that is quite lost upon us today. 

But, more importantly, he established the standard by which all subsequent presidents have been ultimately measured—not by the size of their electoral victories, not by their legislative programs, and not by the number of their vetoes, but by their moral character. 

Although we live in another world than his, his great legacy is still with us. May we be forever grateful that a man of such caliber gave his life to form our country and lay the foundation upon which we stand.