[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5925]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1300
                         NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

  (Mr. LANKFORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANKFORD. July of 1843, a new painting was hung in the old 
rotunda of the United States Capitol under the old wooden dome. It was 
a painting by Robert Weir of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims. It 
depicted the beginning of our Nation as a small group of Puritans set 
sail in 1620 under the sail of God With Us. The most prominent feature 
of the painting is the depiction of the people gathered on the deck of 
that ship in prayer. That painting still hangs in the rotunda, and it 
still reminds our Nation that we began as a people of prayer, and we 
will only succeed as we continue as a Nation that prays.
  In a day when families are falling apart, when drug use is rampant, 
when pornography is rampant, when the economy is failing, and when debt 
is at an all-time high and people have lost hope in government, they 
move from disappointment to frustration to anger to fear to apathy. We 
will be wise to remember next week, May 3 of this year, the National 
Day of Prayer, for our Nation to stop and hesitate again and remember 
our hope does not come from Washington.
  Maybe this is a good moment to read again Luke 22:46 when Jesus 
admonished the disciples and said: Why are you sleeping? Get up and 
pray that you will not fall into temptation.

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