Kingdom Principles

r Chapter One T HE P RIORITY OF THE K INGDOM I t was hot that morning—over 90 degrees—and humid. I was just five years old, and excited. The heat did not bother me because that day I was cho sen to lead the school pledge and national anthem. There we all stood, over three hundred of us, in our uniforms—short brown pants, long knee socks, stiff, starched white shirts, our little neck ties—holding the Union Jack. As we pledged to honor and submit to the Queen of our kingdom, we sang the two songs that were the first ones we were required to learn from birth. Every one of us knew every word, and we sang with gusto and pride: “God save our gracious queen, long live our noble queen, God save the queen. Send her victorious, happy and glorious, born to rule over us, God save the queen.” Next came the waving of the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain as our voices filled the air with the second song: “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.” It has taken me almost a lifetime to understand, appreciate, and in some ways overcome the impact of those history-making experi ences of my childhood. Today I understand that what we went

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