Elections Have Meaning . . .

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. it behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

(This could apply to any election year, but is credited to Abraham Lincoln, 1863!)

The political turmoil is stirring up as every candidate or want-to-be recognized candidate sends out their messages to their personal advantage. They want to win a nomination and, ultimately, the political office so truth isn’t necessarily a primary issue in their campaigns. Perhaps, it isn’t only the politicians that are helping our country down a slippery path.

I am beginning to see where the problems of the world are centered. Although the people perpetuating evil are the catalyst for bad times, the reason for the continued lack of values in our social, political and moral environment happens because of the ordinary good people! I am talking about those who have decided that one vote, one objection or one argument on the side of goodness wouldn’t really matter in view of the vastness of the problems we are beset with today.

During the last election, I mentioned to someone that if you vote for a pro-abortion candidate, you share in each and every abortion made possible because that particular candidate was elected to a position that made his agenda of death possible. Their quick retort was, “I voted for him/her because of his/her stand on the major political issues.” How does God weigh major political issues when the life of a baby is in the balance?

Someone else told me that there are too many charities. Rather than try and support all of them, just avoid the decision and don’t donate to any of them. Realistically, one can’t give to every good cause, however, who knows where the widow’s mite you do give will make a difference? Pennies add up to dollars when everyone thinks about those in need.

How many people are really shocked today when they hear about someone having a baby out of wedlock. Or couples living together without the benefits of marriage? When our leaders exhibit immoral behavior, does it make any impression other than to grace the political cartoon on the editorial page? I was informed that you can’t change the world so you might as well learn to live with it! Did we buy it, when certain people once explained their guilt by saying, “we were just following orders.”? Majority should never rule when their rules are wrong.

We are firstly responsible for our souls and those of our children. We can’t isolate ourselves from the ways of the world, but if we don’t do our part to change the world, what kind of legacy are we leaving our children. Will they look back on our example and continue their lives in Godly ways?