Today is Election Day. And no one is happier than I am. I am hopeful that, after tonight, there will be a winner and we can all go back to living our lives. For the past few weeks and months, I have really been annoyed by the overabundance of political ads, phone calls to my home, snide remarks on my Twitter feed and Facebook timelines, and the constant barrage of instant debates that pop up all because people have differences of opinion. I understand freedom of speech; I am an American government teacher. I just wish that people would exercise their right to free speech to themselves and leave me out of it.
What is really alarming is how passionate some people are about their candidates. I understand passion and I am not saying that there is anything wrong with having convictions. Nonetheless, when I see people who proclaim Christ being more concerned with an election than they are about Christ, it makes me sad. When I see brothers and sisters in Christ turning their backs on the love of Christ to insult people who have differences of opinion with them, it makes me sad. When people assume they know what typer of person I am because of the political party with which I identify or they think they know the political party with which I identify because of who I am, it makes me mad! Imagine if we lived in a world where we were as passionate about Jesus as we are about our favorite politicians and policies. Not to the point of degrading others, but just trying to persuade them of how incredibly awesome Jesus is and how a life lived with Him is like no other! And don't think I am just talking to other people; I even wish I was more passionate in sharing my love for Jesus. No matter what happens tomorrow, I truly understand who is really in control and it is not a Republican or a Democrat. It is not a politician at all. For the past 34 years, there have been different political parties in the White House and on Capitol Hill and yet, my life feels unaffected by anything they do. I believe that it is because I have the King of Kings on my side. I vote because the Bible tells us to be good citizens and because people fought and died for me to vote, but my faith and my trust and my hope and my change rest in Jesus alone. No man can do for me what He has already done! Ms. EV
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Who is holding you back from being the best that you can be? Who is keeping you from being a better friend, child, parent, spouse, sibling, or Christian? I bet I know one person we all have in common. Much of our lives, we play the blame game and take the Flip Wilson defense of, “The devil made me do it!” Yes, Satan is evil. He is the prince of darkness, the ruler of hell, and the tempter of the children of God, but even Satan is not responsible for everything we choose to do in our daily lives. Perhaps, before we are saved, the devil had more control over our choices. However, once you are saved, your soul belongs to God and the devil can’t make you do anything. Jesus proved that to us in Matthew 4.
Now, I am not saying that the devil will not mess with you. If he was brazen enough to mess with the Son of God, surely we are not immune to his deviance. He would love to fill our minds with oppressing and depressing thoughts, but we, children of God, are not his and he is not responsible for the bad choices that we make. We must take a good, long look in the mirror before we make excuses about who exactly is putting us through hell. Most people grew up with a dream of who they wanted to be. For me, I wanted to be a rich attorney with a powerful husband. I had my life all planned out; however, I never really spoke to God about what kind of life He had planned for me. I just assumed that my dream, which was based on money and fame rather than building His Kingdom, was the dream God gave me. Nonetheless, as big as my dream was, God had something even greater planned for me. Yet, I chose my plan over His plan. There were several signs that my plan was not going to work, but I decided to force myself into the mold that I had envisioned and I ended up being miserable. Then, I started blaming God for allowing the devil to mess with my life, but truth be told, I was the only one to blame. I was giving the devil way too much credit and pointing the finger at God for where I was in my life because I thought He should have protected me from my worst enemy. Well, you know what they say, “When you point the finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you.” And, my worst enemy, on any given day, is not the devil; it is me! I am pretty confident that if we are honest with ourselves, many of us would answer the question, “Who is holding you back,” with, “I am holding me back.” As I said last week in God-Robots, God does not want mindless worshippers, so we have free will. He wants us to have life and life more abundantly, but that starts with taking responsibility for our own actions. The quicker we can admit to making mistakes, the sooner we can get out of God’s way and let Him lead our lives. Yes, Satan will challenge us, but, ultimately our choices are ours to make. We should be making them with God’s plan for our lives in mind. Are you willing to move out of God’s way, so that you can live your best life? Ms. EV |
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