The events in our life say what happened to us but not not determine what we become!
Facts do not become sentences.
David Reynolds wrote in his new biography, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times that Lincoln’s father, Thomas, witnessed the killing of his father by Indians, making him an orphan at the age of ten.
Abraham’s mother, Nancy Hanks, was born out of wedlock. She died at the age of thirty-four. At age of nine Abraham when he was nine years old, Abraham attended five schools for short terms, for a total of less than one year.
And yet, Reynolds says of our sixteenth president: “At America’s most divided time, Lincoln pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation foremost in his mind. He progressed cautiously, shrewdly, inexorably. With honesty. With humility. With winning humor. And in the end, with his thoughts on all Americans, regardless of party, religion, or race.
“His principled vision and his disarming modesty remain an inspiration to everyday Americans and political leaders alike. Freedom. Equality. Justice for everyone—even for the most marginalized or oppressed—contained within one nation. This was Abe, in his democratic fullness”
