1–6–2022 The Two Most Important Words in the American Prayer

I am a long-standing member of my Toastmaster group, an organization I heartily encourage people to join. My particular group gathers on Thursday mornings at 7:30 AM via Zoom ever since the pandemic’s start. This morning my assigned role was to serve as invocator timer. This means that not only do I time speeches during the meeting to keep everyone sharp and concise, I am also tasked to start the meeting with an invocation, exhortation, or meditation. This morning I shared the following:

Mr. President, fellow Toastmasters, and most welcome guests

An invocation, exhortation, and meditation

On this the first meeting of the new year, and also the first anniversary of a preplanned, organized attempted coup ranking as one of our nation’s darkest days of infamy, let me recite an American prayer familiar to us all.

But before I do, let me ask each of you to listen for the two most important words in it.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If I were to poll the room, I probably would get a variety of answers as to which were the two most important words. Let me suggest they were the last two, the smallest ones: “for all.” To refresh, it ends with liberty and justice, for all.

Not just for the wealthy, the landowners, or just men, or just the Caucasians or Christians, but for all.

As we start the new year, let us each accept our responsibility to our nation, of the people, by the people, and for the people, by taking seriously our individual duty to extend the blessings of our nation to all.