I am so thankful we don’t have cable because I find election commercials so annoying. Yes, I’m more of the rosy glasses kind of person so all the tearing down instead of building up gets to me. No worries, I had my fill on social media which I also got to the point of turning off some days. And quite honestly I would most likely completely disconnect from it completely if I weren’t promoting our businesses on it. I was so thankful election Tuesday had arrived, the end was near, and everything would go back to normal. I was fully aware some people were not going to be happy and sincerely disappointed for sure. That’s the way it goes in every election. I voted, chatted with a few neighbors at the polls and carried on with my day.
I went to bed at 9:00 pm. I didn’t see or hear a thing until I woke up the next day. At least I was well rested, not like hubby who stayed up until 1:30 am…and we found out at the same time anyway haha! I was so excited it was all over…except it wasn’t…and what went on for the next few days was nothing I have ever experienced before. Silly me I thought we would all just move along and be excepting of what the outcome was. Guess that’s just me living in my little bubble. Hubby said he stayed up that night because he couldn’t stop watching – even said he was super uncomfortable in the chair he was in but couldn’t move…and that’s what happened to me…I couldn’t help but want to read everyone’s posts, and yet at the same time, I didn’t want to read any of them. And by Saturday I had myself all worked up and unable to focus. How did I allow myself to get sucked into all this? It doesn’t matter who you are or what side you were standing on during or after this election. ‘We the people’ by association have had your morals, standards, character, education, class affiliation, religion, gender and race attacked, by ‘we the people’.
So there I was, getting all worked up. There I was taking things personally. There I was…mind reeling on what I was seeing from everyone. Nothing nice, on any side. Not one thing I saw was nice. Everything was still targeting a candidate or the actual people of the country. There has to be a better focus. Yes, there is always a better focus. Then I was reminded of this verse, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Phillipians 4:8 So I started looking back over my week – my week out in my community, and this is what I recalled:
I saw a local news story done on my grandfather, who will be 100 years old on December 2nd. They did a story on him on voting day, and he shared his story and spoke of his first election he voted in, “for Roosevelt, you remember Ted?” he said. You can watch the story here it’s kinda heart warming 🙂
While I was shopping at our local farmers market, I was talking to a little girl, about 4 years old I’d say. She was shopping with her grandmother, who was ordering her meat. The girl was asking me about what the items in the case were. There was a man on the other side of me, when he pulled his money out, I heard a coin hit the ground, so did that little girl. She ran right over to it and picked it up. The man didn’t seem to notice. I was then paying for my own order but kept my eye on her to see what she was going to do. After I paid, I looked at her and smiled, she came over and lifted the quarter up to me and said, “you dropped this”. I said, “no sweetie, I think that man dropped it.” She turned to him and told him he dropped it, he smiled and said, “why don’t you keep that for your piggy bank?”
While driving close to my home, I approached a red light, however the car in front of me stopped way short of traffic for the light to let a large heating repair van merge out into traffic going the opposite direction.
I sat at an assembly in our local elementary school during a Veterans Day assembly. I looked around and saw all the veterans that were there. I watched a slide show of all the veterans people love. I listened to children sing songs about veterans with words like, ‘we thank you’, ‘you are so brave’, ‘you gave the best years of your youth’, ‘we are free because of you’…… and I saw some men and women, including my own father receive recognition for the sacrifices they made for us. I said The Pledge of Allegiance, participated in a moment of silence for the veterans who couldn’t be there and for those who didn’t make it back to U.S. soil.
I cozied up on a chair in front of the fire and listened to my oldest two children and their friend banter about school, politics, church and what they were going to have for dessert. I saw them laugh and listened to their hearts.
My family sat in church together, we take up almost an entire row of seating the 6 of us. We freely sang worship songs together with our church family. We heard about how to thrive during this difficult time for our country. Hubby took a weekly selfie and ‘checked’ in…at least he didn’t spill the offering plate this time!
And my faith was restored as I looked back and focused on only what was good. I see hope in the actions of others. I see kindness, love and compassion. I don’t want to turn a blind eye, but I just can’t help but feel that if we have a focus on what is good, and true, and lovely, and admirable…things that are worthy of praise…that our hearts will heal, our families will thrive and our communities will be unshakable.
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