if you can't say somethin' nice...

fellow mommas, please tell me if you can top this one...(kristi, i'm counting on you!)

i ran to the grocery on saturday to just pick up a few things. i saw an old friend as i was walking in the store, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. i noticed this lady waiting to talk to me, and as i said good-bye to my friend, the lady approached me. and this is what the complete stranger waited to say to me...

you couldn't hide behind a tree if you wanted to, could ya!?

um, well, if it was a big tree!

a week later...

it's been a week since obama was declared our president-elect. between now and then, my thoughts have run the gamete from utter disgust for the man to praying for the grace to pray for our future president. i've come across several articles that have encouraged and challenged me, as well as those that have put much more eloquently the basic thoughts i've had lately. my pregnant brain is really too tired to write more about this, so i'm gonna let these articles do the talking for me. i've included my favorite snippets from these posts for a little preview... obviously, they're not my thoughts because these people capitalize!

ligon duncan
For those Christians who are more dismayed than overjoyed about the prospects of an Obama presidency, there should be a remembrance that as our President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).
chuck colson
I can’t find any better explanation for why we Americans find ourselves in the state we are in. We have forgotten God.
my dear friend kristi
I pray that my heart will be humbled and not look to a man but the Man for my peace. I pray that for all of us who follow Jesus Christ. We are not slaves but to Christ. This is not our home. May we believe it and live like it!
this link that i found thanks to boomama
"Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1Pe 2:17) When Peter wrote those words, Nero was the emperor of Rome. (To those inclined to cynicism, I AM NOT equating President Elect Obama with Nero.) My point is that if Peter could encourage the early Christians to honor the man that was feeding them to lions and impaling them upon poles and burning them alive to light his gardens, then surely we can pray for and honor our new President notwithstanding our political views.
ross middleton
I’ve been praying for mercy and the fact that my ideal candidate isn’t in office will not change the fact that I pray for mercy. We don’t need mercy because of one person, we need mercy because we are sinful people.
thirsty theologian
I’ve got news for you. Unless you wrote in “Jesus Christ,” you voted for a lesser evil.
clayton bell
Dear Christian who spent time politicking on your Facebook, Twitter and blog, it’s Wednesday, November 5th. The election is over. But the world still needs changing.
so a week later, i am convicted and i am encouraged. i am thankful to call Jesus Christ my Savior, and i can sleep knowing that He does all things well.

campaigning debut!

today, the kids and i joined tammy and her kids for a couple of hours of sign waving at one of our local precincts. we were hootin and a hollerin "yes on 2!" in support of the 2nd amendment to protect the definition of marriage in florida between one man and one woman. this is an extremely important issue, and we were so happy to show our support! and the kids were so happy to get to yell and wave at people. :) tammy's husband, jonathan, is very involved in politics in our town (um, yes, tammy, i realize that is a huge understatement!), so he found out where our influence would be most needed today. we set up camp around lunchtime, hoping to persuade hoards of voters flocking to the polls on their lunchbreaks. wellllll, thanks to early voting, flocking was not exactly the reality of it all. it was more like a voter here, a voter there... in two hours, we maybe saw 30 people actually walking into the precinct to vote. we did, however, wave and holler at lots of cars passing by. natalie, jonathan & tammy's oldest, has been her daddy's little campaigning sidekick this election year, and she loved cheering, "one man one woman!" it really made me smile everytime i heard her! natalie was also very into how much response we got. we had fun analyzing things... like what is better? a smile with no wave? or a wave from a very unhappy looking person? we decided thumbs up was the best, only second to a big loud HONK! the kids drew a lot of attention just sitting there in a row with their individual signs.


after awhile, it hit me that tammy and i were two women waving with "one man, one woman" signs!! we got a big laugh out of that, but we are happy to say that we are both happily married to MEN!


here is tammy with baby claire, who even got into the waving!


we were also pleasantly surprised to see our friend kj and her kids there when we arrived! the more the merrier! the kids took breaks from waving to explore the intriguing grate behind our post. they went from hard at work...


to hardly working!


they even got creative and made trains and towers out of the many signs we had...



i hope we were able to get the message out to even just a few people that had not yet made up their minds about amendment 2. if nothing else, we encouraged those that also believe in the importance of traditional marriage between one man and one woman. may all the glory go to our God, the One who created the blessing of marriage!

on the eve of election day...

john piper shares some wonderful, encouraging points on the election. please take time to watch the entire video. about halfway through, he admonishes that we should not be so worked up about this election... that we should not react as though the whole world is going to collapse if our opponent wins. he goes on to encourage us to say,

"i am God's child. Jesus Christ is my King. america is not my allegiance. God & heaven are my allegiance. God can turn this for good no matter who gets elected. i will always be pursuing His kingdom first and let the political chips fall where they will."

keep that in mind as we bite off our fingernails in front of the tv tomorrow evening!

national confession

during each sunday morning worship service, our congregation has a time of corporate confession of sin. not to be confused with the catholic church's sacrament of penance, this congregational exercise is done to come before our High Priest, acknowledging the sin in our lives and our continual need for Him. i did not grow up accustomed to this as a part of worship service, but i have grown to love this time. we read, as a congregation, a variety of prayers, including those of the puritans and protestant reformers. the confession is always followed by an assurance of pardon, a scripture read to encourage us as christians that by the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven! praise the Lord for such an assurance!

today, our worship was centered around the election, and we read aloud this national confession of sin. i believe it was mostly written by billy graham.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good', but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word in the name of moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it "multi-culturalism."
We have endorsed perversion and called it an "alternative lifestyle."
We have exploited the poor and called it "a lottery."
We have neglected the needy and called it "self-preservation."
We have rewarded laziness and called it "welfare."
In the name of "choice," we have killed our unborn.
In the name of "right to life," we have even killed abortionists.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it "building esteem."
We have abused power and called it "political savvy."
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it "taxes".
We've polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it "freedom of expression."
We've ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it "enlightenment."

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today. Try us, and show us if there be any wicked way in us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless the men and women we have elected and will elect into office and who have been ordained by You to govern over us. Grant them Your wisdom to rule, and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. We ask it in the name of Your son, the living Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
and the assurance of pardon: psalm 34:17-18

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
i am guessing that most of us have the upcoming election on our hearts and minds, as well we should. but praise the Lord that, as our pastor reminded us today, God will still be on the throne when we wake up wednesday morning. that is something for which we should be so very thankful!