Learning from Franklin

For school right now I am reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and to be honest the first part of it was not all that interesting. But in the second part you learn more about Franklin and who he desires to be and how he wants to live his life. Benjamin Franklin was a Deist, which means that he believed in a God who created the Earth, but also doesn't believe that God has much to do with out normal everyday life. I find this an interesting way of thinking about our Heavenly Father, but don't agree with him. For a small time in Franklin's life he was trying to become perfect, which he thought he could do because he knew right from wrong. He came across thirteen virtues that he tried to live everyday, to help him become perfect. This consumed his life for a short time period, but for a man that doesn't believe that God has a lot to do with our lives, includes a few prayers that he would say to help him along his way towards perfection. One that Franklin came up with himself that he would often say: "O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors in me." And then another prayer that he borrowed from Thomson's Poems, "Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme! O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, an vice, from every low pursuit; and fill my soul with knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!" Although a few years later Franklin admits that he failed it his efforts to become perfect, we can all learn from him and his efforts. Even a pretty nonreligious man could recognize the power of our Father in Heaven and would ask for help to become better each and every day.