Today is Voting Day!

I had an appointment at 8:00 am before I went to work so I had to get to my polling place at 7:00 A.M. There was already a line forming....isn't it awesome to see so many people anxious to vote????

Of course there was the decision to be made for our Presidential leaders, but as Jimmy and I have been discussing lately that position doesn't hold as much power as people tend to give it. Our country was designed specifically to avoid having one person with all the power. Four year terms allow us to remove someone from an office before he has the opportunity to usurp too much power. We have three branches of government: The Executive, or the President and Vice President; The Judicial which is the Supreme Court; and the Legislative or Congress. We have the tendency to credit or blame the President for what is happening at a particular time. So now do we think that whoever we put in that Executive office is going to FIX Wall Street? The gas prices? End the war? It isn't going to happen that way because of those other branches that "Balance the power".

I'm so grateful for the way our forefathers set up our government. It works! Slowly sometimes....and we've certainly done our best to mess it up....but still it functions. I'm grateful for the opportunity to vote and for the patriotism my parents firmly placed in my heart. I still cry when I sing the national anthem, and I pause to think about each sentence in the Pledge of Allegiance. So, in spite of the fact that whoever becomes President will not be able to immediately "fix" us, we do have a right, responsibility, and honor to walk into our polling place to cast our vote.

Another issue that has given me an opportunity to really think is Proposition 8. I believe the Lord meant for marriage to be between a man and woman. He created Adam and then as his companion, helpmeet, partner he created Eve. He even created her from Adam's side. I wonder if He is surprised that we would ever question this coupling. As easy as THAT choice is to me I find that sometimes the very people who make that choice (Christians) forget that He also taught us not to judge. The propaganda against Prop 8 make us sound like we are discriminating in the very disgusting nature that our African American, Japanese, Armenian, and Hispanic brothers have been judged. Sadly, some people do judge and discriminate. But that isn't the Lord's plan. Sometimes I worry that some find it difficult to stand on the middle ground.....you know where we understand that God wants us to live in families that include a mother and a father, but where we truly LOVE and do not judge our brothers and sisters who face the trials and challenges that homosexuality brings to their lives.

We have no concept, unless we've walked that road ourselves, what it feels like to be them. There is no way to know what it is God is asking of these good people. Do we ask them not to love who they choose to love? How do we do that, really, how do we do that? We look for love, live for love, cry when we don't have love, and then we ask them NOT to love? We can't do that, but unfortunately God does. But, God knows there is a way, some way they can overcome this trial, this challenge....even if it IS abstinence. We can't judge them for wanting to love who they want to love, but we do have to honor God's desire to leave the sanctity of MARRIAGE between a man and a woman. While we teach our kids about the Proclamation to the Family, we must also teach them about Christ's example to not cast the first stone, to not judge lest we be judged.

I had a childhood friend, a wonderful friend, who was raised in his Christian church that taught him to love, and also taught him, as mine does, that man should love only a woman. He struggled with his own feelings but tried to live "righteously". Good Christian people mocked him. They called him "fag" and other horrible names. They joked about him behind his back, and to his face. Is it any wonder that he turned to those who understood the pain? He continually TRIED to live the way he had been taught God wanted him to live. He married, had children, made the best of his feelings. But, there was the constant nagging from his head, and the constant taunting from those around him, even in his own congregation. The struggle was too much to bear and he left his marriage. Eventually he died from AIDS. He was the best kind of person kind, loving, patient, giving, receptive, always thinking of everyone else. Tell me........who do you think the Lord will judge more harshly....my friend? or those whose comments might have led him away from the life God wanted for him? Yes, I want marriage to remain as God intended, between a man and woman, but I beg us as Christians to not judge these people who already have a struggle.

Now, go VOTE!