Started as a forum for Christian Mudders, The Fellowship Hall is my gathering place to share my thoughts about Christian gaming and life.
The hardest part to me, comes with having to know who you are. Not just what your name is, or where you live, or who your parents are, but what values are most important in your life. This is a value judgment that you will find will change as you grow, not only physically (for those of you who might still be shorter than your potential size) but emotionally as well.
I for one, feel that I have done much more emotional maturing in my life than I have done physical growing, and at 5'11", I'm fairly close to the average size of anyone in my family. But for the longest time, emotionally, I think I could say that I was pretty much an infant. Even now, I know there are things I can be very immature about. Paying bills, doing chores, but I digress. My faith, which while I've had it in some degree for the majority of my life, I feel I have gained more spiritual maturity in the past 20 years than I have in the whole 45+ years of my life.
In my youth, I would have been willing to vote for whoever seemed the most popular. Not because I thought they would best serve in the office, but it seemed more important to me to vote for the person who would eventually win the election, as if my personal vote was the deciding factor.
These days, what is important isn't necessarily whom I think will win the office, but instead, whom I think is best suited to run the office with the values that I feel are most important for leading our nation. I feel it is of highest importance that as a Christian, that we vote into office those who most fully support our views and beliefs. Many who would run for office will try to make you THINK that they feel as you do, but if you look at their past actions, how they have lived their life and run their business in whatever office they are holding before this, you will see where their heart really is.
I will give you an example from my own family. I have two sisters, both of whom I love dearly. My eldest sister I am very proud to say has done exceedingly well for herself. She and her husband own an advertising agency in Indianapolis, and they are in the process of moving into a fairly affluent neighborhood on the north side. I hold nothing against her, indeed she is a really HUGE example of how someone with drive and ambition can take a dream for themselves and see it not only fulfilled, but exceeded! My only problem with my sister seems to be the fact that while we both grew up in the same "blue collar" middle class neighborhood, my sister seems clueless to remember what it was really like not having any money.
My brother, my other sister and I all know fully well what its like to deal with tough financial times. This is very much the situation with one of the presidential candidates. For all his efforts to make himself seem like the 'everyman', he's not. And I bet you, some reading this think I'm talking about the conservative. I'm speaking of the liberal! Yes, he may have grown up poor -- goodness knows he mentions it in about all his political advertising -- but it doesn't show in his life NOW. True, in some regards the conservative seems clueless of what its like to not have money, but at least he's honest about himself. He speaks honestly from his view and is willing to listen to others. The liberal seems to be saying, "I know what your life is like, and I know what is best for us to do to fix it!" There are some of us out here who don't WANT your help to fix it. There are some of us who want JOBS where we can afford to take care of our own families. There are some of us out here who want the government to keep our employers from (pardon my language here a moment) screwing us over and expecting us to smile while they're doing it!
So I would hope that you spend time in prayer, asking God to help you see the truth about the candidates. About whom you should vote for and whom you feel would best be able to run the country as you feel it needs to be run. Here's a hint though: You don't even have to agree with me! I won't be hurt if you don't! But no matter what, rain, snow, wind or massive swarms of duckbill platypuses ...GET OUT THERE AND VOTE! If you don't, you have no right to complain about who gets into office.
