Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath – The Inauguration.

I wanted to share some of my favorite parts of President Obama’s speech. I have to admit, and I have always said this – Obama is an amazing speaker. Obama is very captivating and delivers his message very clear with poise and accuracy. I have always enjoyed listening to him speak. It is a nice change. With that being said, he was not my first pick, but then neither was the other candidate. Obama’s party and liberal views worry me at times – but he is our President, now we need to stand together and make the changes our country so desperately needs. I just hope they are the right ones. Below are my top 5 favorite statements of his first message as the President of the United States of America.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.” I appreciate the reality and determination of this message and the way he delivered it.

“Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.” What insight, what vision, what reality! This is so true.

“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” Again, well said with conviction.

“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.” These are very powerful statements – especially coming from him. This caught me off guard and I hope and pray Obama follows through on these statements.

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.” Obama, you are one man; we as Americans need to stand together to make these statements come true. We all want to see America succeed.

One last thing to add about the inauguration ceremony – Aretha Franklin was amazing! Our Queen of Soul!