{"id":4138,"date":"2009-01-19T15:00:21","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html"},"modified":"2009-01-19T15:00:21","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T15:00:21","slug":"our-presidents-letter-to-his-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html","title":{"rendered":"Our President&#8217;s Letter to his Daughters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Perhaps you&#8217;ve already seen this now public letter from our President-Elect to his daughters.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dear Malia and Sasha,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I know that you&#8217;ve both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to<br \/>\npicnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably<br \/>\nshouldn&#8217;t have let you have. But I also know that it hasn&#8217;t always been easy for you and Mom, and<br \/>\nthat as excited as you both are about that new puppy, it doesn&#8217;t make up for all the time we&#8217;ve<br \/>\nbeen apart. I know how much I&#8217;ve missed these past two years, and today I want to tell you a little<br \/>\nmore about why I decided to take our family on this journey.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me-about how I&#8217;d make my way in the<br \/>\nworld, become successful, and get the things I want. But then the two of you came into my world<br \/>\nwith all your curiosity and mischief and those smiles that never fail to fill my heart and light up<br \/>\nmy day. And suddenly, all my big plans for myself didn&#8217;t seem so important anymore. I soon found<br \/>\nthat the greatest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours. And I realized that my own life<br \/>\nwouldn&#8217;t count for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness<br \/>\nand fulfillment in yours. In the end, girls, that&#8217;s why I ran for President: because of what I want<br \/>\nfor you and for every child in this nation.<\/p>\n<p>I want all our children to go to schools worthy of their potential-schools that challenge<br \/>\nthem, inspire them, and instill in them a sense of wonder about the world around them. I want them<br \/>\nto have the chance to go to college-even if their parents aren&#8217;t rich. And I want them to get good<br \/>\njobs: jobs that pay well and give them benefits like health care, jobs that let them spend time<br \/>\nwith their own kids and retire with dignity.<\/p>\n<p>I want us to push the boundaries of discovery so that you&#8217;ll live to see new technologies and<br \/>\ninventions that improve our lives and make our planet cleaner and safer. And I want us to push our<br \/>\nown human boundaries to reach beyond the divides of race and region, gender and religion that keep<br \/>\nus from seeing the best in each other.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we have to send our young men and women into war and other dangerous situations to<br \/>\nprotect our country-but when we do, I want to make sure that it is only for a very good reason,<br \/>\nthat we try our best to settle our differences with others peacefully, and that we do everything<br \/>\npossible to keep our servicemen and women safe. And I want every child to understand that the<br \/>\nblessings these brave Americans fight for are not free-that with the great privilege of being a<br \/>\ncitizen of this nation comes great responsibility.<\/p>\n<table style=\"margin-right: 10px\" align=\"left\" width=\"200\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.parade.com\/export\/sites\/default\/images\/-v2\/hot-topics\/2009\/0118\/obama-family-3.jpg\" \/>&nbsp; <span style=\"font-size: 10px\">Sasha (l) and Malia Obama at play in New Hampshire in<br \/>\n2007.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.parade.com\/export\/sites\/default\/images\/-v2\/hot-topics\/2009\/0118\/obama-family-1.jpg\" \/>&nbsp; <span style=\"font-size: 10px\">Bumper cars at the Iowa State Fair in August 2007.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>That was the lesson your grandmother tried to teach me when I was your age, reading me the<br \/>\nopening lines of the Declaration of Independence and telling me about the men and women who marched<br \/>\nfor equality because they believed those words put to paper two centuries ago should mean<br \/>\nsomething.<\/p>\n<p>She helped me understand that America is great not because it is perfect but because it can<br \/>\nalways be made better-and that the unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know<br \/>\nAmerica should be.<\/p>\n<p>I hope both of you will take up that work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to<br \/>\ngive others the chances you&#8217;ve had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back<br \/>\nto this country that has given our family so much-although you do have that obligation. But because<br \/>\nyou have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something<br \/>\nlarger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.<\/p>\n<p>These are the things I want for you-to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and<br \/>\nno achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help<br \/>\nbuild that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and<br \/>\nthrive that you girls have. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve taken our family on this great adventure.<\/p>\n<p>I am so proud of both of you. I love you more than you can ever know. And I am grateful every<br \/>\nday for your patience, poise, grace, and humor as we prepare to start our new life together in the<br \/>\nWhite House.<\/p>\n<p>\n<strong>Love,&nbsp;Dad&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you&#8217;ve already seen this now public letter from our President-Elect to his daughters. Dear Malia and Sasha, I know that you&#8217;ve both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our President&#039;s Letter to his Daughters - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our President&#039;s Letter to his Daughters - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps you&#8217;ve already seen this now public letter from our President-Elect to his daughters. Dear Malia and Sasha, I know that you&#8217;ve both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-19T15:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.parade.com\/export\/sites\/default\/images\/-v2\/hot-topics\/2009\/0118\/obama-family-3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our President's Letter to his Daughters - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our President's Letter to his Daughters - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Perhaps you&#8217;ve already seen this now public letter from our President-Elect to his daughters. Dear Malia and Sasha, I know that you&#8217;ve both had a lot of fun these last two years on the campaign trail, going to picnics and parades and state fairs, eating all sorts of junk food your mother and I probably&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2009-01-19T15:00:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.parade.com\/export\/sites\/default\/images\/-v2\/hot-topics\/2009\/0118\/obama-family-3.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/01\/our-presidents-letter-to-his-d.html","name":"Our President's Letter to his Daughters - Jesus 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