Thirty-two years ago this week, I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as part of the Class of 1988. This week the Class of 2020 began their journey as part of the “Long Gray Line”.
In honor of Independence Day and the men and women who serve so we can have the freedoms to speak and to pray as we see fit, I am publishing The West Point Cadet Prayer.
Before you read it, ask yourself: “What challenge does this prayer offer me?” Whether you are a person of faith or not, I think you will find a challenge meant for you.
Duty - Honor - Country. These are the three core values that West Point has stood for over the last two centuries. The West Point Cadet Prayer is used by graduates as a reminder of those values and other values that are meant to form the character our nation’s future leaders.
The West Point Cadet Prayer
“O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.
Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish.
Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.
Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy.
Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life. Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service. Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance, and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer.
Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee and to our Country. All of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of all. Amen”
Question:
How many different character challenges does this prayer present to leaders?
Hmm the challenges may begin with a belief in a supreme being. Then the words honest and clean thinking can be additional challenges.
How many leaders are inconsistent with their behaviors creating hypocrisy?
Each statement can be viewed as a challenge for some leader some where.
Thanks for sharing as I never heard of this prayer before.
That’s what I like about it. Each part is a challenge and a request for the strength to meet that challenge.
Without a doubt “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” and “Endow us with courage that…knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy.” In my mind the single greatest challenge is to know no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy. If only that ideal were internalized by more people.
I remember it well but it has been a few years since I really looked over it in detail. Thanks for the post.
Courage is not the only virtue. But it is the form of every virtue at it’s testing point. - C. S. Lewis