November 2, 2020

Tuesday, November 3, 2020 is going to be a day that will go down in history.

Is it because I will be celebrating my 30th anniversary with my Love? The legacy we will leave for our children, their children, and so on will make a difference? Through the letters and journals I have kept throughout the past three decades, it will show them memorable times as well as hard times (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and how we persevered through the storms together with God’s help. Sometime I will write about that.

The day will go down in history to change the world because of the important election hopefully that all Christians have been praying up. I am writing about this to hopefully spur on people to think in the last hours of how YOU can make a difference. Am I going to tell you who I am voting for? No, I am not. Once I share my thoughts, it will be pretty clear the choice I am making.

First, as a Christian, it is not only a privilege for me to vote but it is my responsibility to vote. There are way too many people who have never voted because they may not care who gets into office and they are probably way too comfortable living in the land of the free….for now. I think if those people who chose not to vote would spend even a day or a week in a third world country they would change their minds on the importance of voting.

Next, you may not be voting because you may believe that your one vote will not make a difference. I remember a few years back having a conversation with my grandmother who told me she was not going to vote because the gentleman she was dating would vote opposite of her so they would cancel each other out. I explained to her that her vote can make a difference. I told her that it was important to think of her grandchildren and great grandchildren and the difference her vote can make in their lives. She thought on it, and I was privileged to pick her up and take her to the voting pole. Just seeing her do that made a difference to me.

Here are some examples how ONE VOTE can change the world….for good….or bad….you decide:

1801 – Thomas Jefferson elected president
1877 – Rutherford B. Hayes elected president
1921 – Adolf Hitler became president of the Nazi Party

The other responsibility I have as being a Christian is to vote based on the Bible. The problem is there are some “Christians” who have decided over the years to add to or take away from the Bible which is not to be done.

More and more, we are seeing “Salad Bar Christians” who will follow only the parts of the Bible that fit their lifestyle and sadly many around them say nothing. They will only surround themselves with those who support the way they choose to live.

“You shall not add to the Word that I command you, nor take from it,
that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.“
Deuteronomy 4:2

Listen, if I see a non-Christian living in such a way that is against God’s Word, there is really not much I can say because they don’t have the same moral compass as I do but if I see a Christian living outside of God’s will, it is my responsibility, as a sister in Christ, to say something. If I am being disliked or hated for expressing to another Christian that they are going astray, then I need to be okay with that. It’s happened….it hurts, but I would rather stand for God than stand against Him by saying nothing.

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,”
that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Hebrews 3:23

Approximately 3,000 lives are taken daily right here in the United States. When I was in high school, I had a friend who thought she was pregnant and said she would have an abortion. Sadly, I supported that as we both believed that it was just tissue. I remember her crying and asking me, “it’s not really a baby, is it?” And I said, “no, it’s not.” I was with her when she took the test, and I praise the Lord she wasn’t pregnant.

Now that science has shown that the baby is living at conception and can feel, no one says “blob of tissue” anymore but instead a “woman’s choice” but I would ask, “what about the baby’s choice”? and the response is usually annoyance or anger, and the specific question isn’t answered.

I was a peer counsel at a crisis pregnancy center many years ago, and I will never forget one mom telling me she already had children and was “too old” to have another so her “only option” was abortion. I told her she had the option of adoption. Her response has stayed with me ever since….

She said very bitterly, “If I can’t have it, no one can!” I find her comment interesting. People who choose to abort will say, “it”, seeming to be easier that way….to not see the child as a person so you don’t feel bad, but let me tell you that there are many, many people that live with the struggles that choice brought. I let her know there were many people who couldn’t get pregnant and so they would love to adopt. I gave her options that were positive. To my knowledge, she never changed her mind but I prayed she would. Her child would be right about 19 now.

Recently, someone close to me made a very tough decision about her baby. She had been wrestling with the decision for months. I remember meeting to talk with her as she struggled through all the questions and best decisions for her and the child. She decided it best to give a wonderful gift to a couple who desired to adopt. It was the most loving and selfless thing she could do. She told me that once she had made the decision that she felt such peace and a weight was gone.

Is it hard for her? Of course! I cannot imagine; however, her decision is presently making a difference in people’s lives as well as future lives. I truly believe God will bring women to her who will be in the same situation, and she will be able to share how she has “been there, done that”. Isn’t it cool that the hard things we go through are NEVER wasted? God uses EVERYTHING in our lives for good, praise the Lord!

There are many issues I could write about and the differences between the candidates. There are no perfect candidates because they aren’t Jesus. I saw a sign in someone’s yard that said, “Jesus 2020”. Wouldn’t that be funny if He came back to take us yet this year but I am not banking on it. I think we have more to learn, but for now I have a choice to make. I need to look at who will stand for justice and walk humbly, and as a Christian, that means I must choose who stands for life.

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.“
Psalm 82:3

Our Declaration of Independence states that our government is to protect life…. up until 1973….when it was decided to pick and choose what to leave in the declaration and what to take out. Sound familiar?

I looked up the definition of “abort”, and everyone knows it’s short for abortion but read further and it says: “bring to a premature end because of a problem or fault”. This should send shivers up and down your spine. Hitler aborted people, young and old, because their “fault” was being a Jew. If you decide it’s a “problem” to give birth to a child with Down Syndrome or if you simply decide that being pregnant is not a convenient time for you, aborting is accepted and even encouraged. In some places, if you have a loved one who has a disability, an incurable disease, or is too old to care for, there’s euthanasia. Shivers?

So, what do you think? Can your ONE VOTE make a difference?

Blessings,
Jennifer