George Washington and the Destiny of America George Washington should have died before America was ever born. During the French and Indian War, long before he became the father of this nation, Washington was being shaped by hardship, war, and danger. He worked as a surveyor, traveled the frontier, served with the British, and learned war up close. Looking back, it looks like preparation for a larger destiny. In 1755, at the Battle of Monongahela, Washington was serving under General Braddock when the British army was ambushed. Officers were shot down. Braddock was mortally wounded. The army was collapsing. Washington rode through the battlefield carrying orders. He was not hiding in the back. Four bullets went through his coat. Two horses were shot from under him. Men around him were dying. Yet Washington walked away without being wounded. Some people call that luck. I do not. When a man survives that, later holds the American army together, becomes the first president, and gives power back instead of becoming a king, it looks like God preserved him for a reason. Washington was not perfect. None of the founders were. But God has never needed perfect men to do great things. He learned discipline, leadership, and how to keep men together when everything looked hopeless. America did not win because it had the strongest army. It survived because Washington kept the army alive through hunger, cold, defeat, and doubt. Then he gave power back. Twice. That helped prove America would not be built around one man ruling everyone else. It would be built around liberty, law, rights, self-government, and religious freedom. Washington should have died before America was born. But he did not. Because he lived, he became one of the men God used to help start the freest nation the world had ever seen.