NARRATIVE: This painting was part of a project with Koechel Peterson Design firm and Shiloh Publishing for a new Bible publication. The purpose for this project was to show how the founding of America was largely based on scriptural and Biblical principles, which would be documented by contributing historian David Barten. The new Bible publication would be called "The Founders Bible," and I was honored to be chosen to create a painting for the cover art.

In deciding on a theme for the cover, I referenced a painting I had done previously titled, "A Firm Foundation." It showed an anonymous, symbolic Founding Father in a room with a Bible, the original U.S. Constitution and a flag. The colonial man is looking out a window at a modern American city skyline, connecting the inspired past to the present.

The painting I created for the cover, “Our Sacred Honor,” shows several symbolic Founding Fathers laboring by lantern light over what would become the documents that established the United States of America. I decided to put in the background the Old North Church, which is in Boston, even though the creation of these documents took place in Philadelphia.

The noble words at the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence are “….with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." We must never forget the courage, sacrifice and prayerful deliberation all of our founders demonstrated in those difficult times. It is to those brave souls that this painting is dedicated.