Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
How Faith Shaped Canada's Foundation
What invisible thread connects Canada's first schoolteacher, the author of a world-famous hymn, and our first Prime Minister? Faith—the golden strand woven throughout Canadian history that's often overlooked during national celebrations.
Today's special Canada Day episode takes us on a journey through "Canada Portraits of Faith," a collection of 52 remarkable individuals whose spiritual convictions shaped our nation in profound ways. But the episode also delivers a gentle challenge: not to become a "land of forgetfulness" where conversations about righteousness vanish. Drawing from Matthew 5:13, we're reminded that today's citizens are called to be "salt of the earth," preserving what's good and making a positive difference.
Whether you're celebrating Canada Day or listening from elsewhere, you're invited to consider how faith can still be a transformative force for good in our communities and nations.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Well, good morning and happy birthday, canada. Because it is Canada's birthday today, I want to do something just a little bit different.
Speaker 1:A while ago, my wife gave me a book entitled Canada Portraits of Faith. In this book it lists 52 individuals who, from even before Canada became a nation, right on up through to more recent times, of people whose faith impacted our country beyond measure. Many of these names you might be familiar with, yet there are others that you will probably never have heard of before A woman by the name of Marguerite Bourgeois she was Canada's first school teacher. There's Joseph Scriven, who wrote the hymn what a Friend we have in Jesus. There's John Hunter, who actually led Canada's first prime minister to Christ. Yes, he led John A McDonald, the famous drinker, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Right on up to Timothy Eaton, who most of us in Canada will remember or know of the Eaton's department stores. These are people of faith, and many others in this book that talk about our foundation, that we have a foundation that says faith is important to who we are.
Speaker 1:The preface of this book contains a quote from Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who was the Prime Minister of Canada back in the 1980s and is the father of our current Prime Minister, justin Trudeau. But Pierre Elliott Trudeau said this the golden thread of faith is woven throughout the history of Canada, from its earliest beginnings up to the present time. Faith was more important than commerce in the minds of many of the European explorers and settlers, and over the centuries, as successive waves of people came to this country, many in search of religious liberty, they brought with them a great wealth and a variety of religious traditions and values. Those values have shaped our laws and our lives and have added enormous strength to the foundation of freedom and justice upon which this country was built. It is an acknowledgment of that debt that the Parliament of Canada later gave its approval, during the constitutional debate, to the statement that Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law. Faith played a large part in the lives of so many men and women who have created in this land a society which places a high value on commitment, integrity. Society which places a high value on commitment, integrity, generosity and, above all, freedom.
Speaker 1:To pass on that heritage strong and intact is a challenge worthy of us all who are privileged to call ourselves Canadians. As we celebrate our country today, let's remember the heritage that we have. Let us not forget what that heritage meant. Psalm 88 and verse 12, the last portion of that verse says can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about righteousness? No, if we start to forget what's right, if we start to forget what's good, if we start to forget the difference between right and wrong, then we are bound to go down a path of destruction and failure.
Speaker 1:These 52 people of faith listed in this book, who were part of the heritage of faith of our country, all understood this principle from Matthew, chapter 5 and verse 13. You are the salt of the earth, but if that salt has become tasteless, how can it be made more salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. They recognized that principle of influence, that they were people to make a difference. They were called by God to make a difference in this country of Canada and to the people around them, and you and I are called to do the same.
Speaker 1:God is for us, he is with us. He wants us to make a difference in the lives of people and continue to make a difference in our country and to not forget about what is right and important and what we need to stand up for. I am so happy and proud to call Canada my home, and to all my friends out there who are in other countries today, may God's peace and strength and joy be with you, and I want to encourage you, too, that you have got the ability to have an impact. Where you are, with peace and joy and the faith in Jesus Christ, our world can be changed. For Him. Have a great day, my friends. Thank you for listening today, and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right, with Danny Mac.
