For this is a day when our nation is
made whole, when our differences, for a moment, are suspended.
And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your
heads:
Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love.
Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the
shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to
do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our
hearts these words: "Use power to help people." For we are given
power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in
the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it
is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen.
I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with
promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make
it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by
freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day
of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old
ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new
breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready
to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be
taken. There are times when the future seems thick as a fog; you
sit and wait, hoping the mists will lift and reveal the right
path.
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