WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama offered prayers for the nation and the people of Egypt, and offered reflections on his own faith journey during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. We pray that the violence in Egypt will end, and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realised, and that a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world, he said at the yearly event attended by guests from around the world, including PPP Co-Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.Other invited guests from Pakistan were Sanam Bhutto, Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Pakistans Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani. The National Prayer Breakfast is a decades-long US tradition designed to be a forum for political, social and business leaders of the world to assemble together and build relationships. In his speech, Obama described how his own beliefs were grounded in his mothers spirituality and deepened through his career in public service. His faith, Obama told the gathering of lawmakers and religious leaders, has sustained him during the trials of the presidency, including when he hears that faith questioned from time to time. Obama is often called a Muslim by his opponents. We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us, but whether were being true to our conscience and true to our God, he said. The president began his remarks by acknowledging Mark Kelly, the husband of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, saying that we are with them for the long haul, and God is with them for the long haul. Kelly attended the service as his wife continues to recover from the January shooting at a constituent-service event in Tucson. Most of his remarks were deeply personal. Obama talked of his father, a Muslim, who, he said, was non-believer whom he met just once. His mother grew up with a certain scepticism about organised religion, and rarely took him to church. Yet she was also one of the most spiritual people that I ever knew, he said. She was somebody who was instinctively guided by the golden rule and who nagged me constantly about the homespun values of her Kansas upbringing, values like honesty and hard work, and kindness and fair play, he said. And its because of her that I came to understand the equal worth of all men and all women, and the imperatives of an ethical life, and the necessity to act on your beliefs.