If you'd like to know what you're teaching your children and grandchildren to worship and revere when you take them to visit the Lincoln Memorial, I suggest reading a U.S. National Park Service (NPS) publication by one Nathan King entitled "Secret Symbol of the Lincoln Memorial."  This is the U.S. government's explanation of the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial.

The "true meaning" of the Lincoln Memorial according to the National Park Service that administers it is represented by a "ubiquitous symbol" that is all over the monument, inside and out.  That symbol is the fasces, a bundle of rods bound together by a leather thong.  This is said to represent "the higher meaning of the memorial and the man."