This is a week of excitement, of change, of new beginnings. We celebrate the peaceful exchange of power. We place the hopes of our future and our children’s future on the shoulders of an untried new leader, but a leader who is filled with enthusiasm and optimism.

No matter what our personal thoughts and preferences are, as a nation we put those thoughts aside and celebrate with pride the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

We pray that God will keep his hand on our new president and his family and that he will continue to shower his blessings on the nation that is a true beacon of freedom throughout the world.

Robert Frost — one of our country’s greatest poets — wrote the following poem at the age of 87 to be read by him at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

The old poet stumbled with the words on a freezing day and reverted to another of his poems.

We thought his words, which were appropriate for the JFK era, are just as appropriate now.

"... The glory of a next Augustan age

Of a power leading from its strength and pride,

Of young ambition eager to be tried,

Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,

In any game the nations want to play.

A golden age of poetry and power,

of which this noonday’s the beginning hour."