Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

I couldn't copy the whole book(so here is a picture of it on Google Books). The following quote really stood out to me:

"And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions." (Pg. 2)


Significance
Through this quote, I can truly tell that Benjamin Franklin was a humble and appreciative person. He shows a great deal amount of trust and respect for God. While none of the Founding Fathers were Christian, many of their words denote a strong belief in God. The strong optimism and hope conveyed by Franklin in this passage is truly admirable. I want faith like his, I want to trust in God so firmly that I can face whatever challenges may come with an assurance that everything will be okay in the end. The beginning of this paragraph shows how committed Franklin was in expressing gratitude. "Now I speak of thanking God.." This section comes on page 2 and this shows that no matter how many other things were on his mind, God was one of the first. This reminds me of how we are expected to pray. First, we address God and then we express thanks and gratitude. Franklin seems to know exactly where his success is coming from, and that it can be taken away as easily as it has come. Life is never certain and while we do all that is in our power to ensure that good things come our way, we are not the ones in charge. Only God can be completely in charge of our lives, and Franklin seems to be keenly aware of this fact.