Monday, February 7, 2011

Where's the grace?

Where's the Grace?
I'm warning those that tend to get really emotional when it comes to political things.....I'm passionate about how I feel and ask that as you read this you would try to think deeply and reflect before commenting out of anger/frustration.

I feel like its really important that I start off by saying that I tend to lean more conservative on issues, but still try the best I can to pray and think deeply about things before I make decisions.  My husband tends to lean on the more liberal side, but I respect him so much in how he talks with me about things.  He hasn't really changed my mind on a lot, but I have learned to respect the other side and to gain knowledge instead of reacting emotionally to things.

I am writing this because lately I have been super sad watching the news...especially interviews regarding past cabinet and presidential heroes in my opinion.  Yes I said Hero.  How many of you have experience running a country?  How many of you have had to make decisions that affect millions and millions of people?  I'm guessing that the answer is no for most of us.  I use the word Hero because I look up to people who work hard to defend my liberty and freedom.  I don't idolize them though because we as a human race are fallen and make mistakes.  We need a God and savior and through Jesus we have that.

With that being said I write you to urge you to think about our own mistakes and all the ways we mess up daily.  Think about making these mistakes and having everyone being able to know those mistakes and feel like they have the authority to say whatever they want to about you.  Does anyone remember 9/11 anymore?  Does anyone remember how our president and his cabinet were there to calm us and keep us safe?  I don't say this trying to convince you to love our past president, but I am saying that you can disagree with him, but still respect his position.

Our news and social media love to nitpick people's mistakes.  You wanna know why?  Their ratings go up.  We love to watch and judge others mistakes.  I am preaching to myself on this one too.  I can't say that I don't hear about people like Tiger Woods and make my own judgments.  In no way does this mean I agree with what Tiger did, but I also feel like I wish I had more grace in knowing he made a big mistake and now has to be in the spot light as he deals with the consequences.  What makes me think that I couldn't make a big mistake like that?  Am I that proud and arrogant?  It is only by God's grace that he works in me to love my husband.  I need him to protect my heart and guide my path towards righteous living.

There was a question asked to Donald Rumsfeld tonight about if he had known what we know now, would he have gone into Iraq?  This really made me think because in my opinion you can't answer that question.  We make mistakes and are supposed to learn from them for the future!  You can't go back in time and ask yourself if with the same circumstances you would do the same thing.....the same circumstances won't ever happen again.  Lots of things change and we grow as individuals.  That point in time is gone and our environment (the people, technology,  places) is constantly changing.   We gain knowledge from our mistakes so we can use them to be wise about the future.  We went into Iraq and did what we did.  We found no weapons of mass destruction.  The central intelligence was wrong.  Does this mean that we won't ever make a mistake regarding entering into countries in the future?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Things will be different.  We will always have hard decisions to make and people will always be on different sides.  Can we learn to respect one another though and recognize that we will all make mistakes including people like our presidents, pastors and people in authority.  Lets be gracious in understanding and trusting that those people are in those positions because God has willed them to be there.  Let's learn to be slow to speak and judge and quick to pray and listen.  

I'm conservative, but I respect my president.  I desire him to make decisions wisely and sometimes disagree with him.  This doesn't mean that I need to write a blog post about all the ways I feel like he is doing a bad job.  He is there and doing his job to keep me safe.  God is doing way more though and I trust he is in control of big decisions like war, riots and unjust governments.

I guess I hope this post makes you think a little.  I love that we live in a country that gives us the freedom to have opinions, but lets learn to be gracious.  Grace and forgiveness really express love for others.  Lets love one another more.

The video below is one of my favorite songs.  Its written about her husband and I feel like it captures what true love means and true grace in relationships.  Hope you like it!!!!!

*Blessings*