Heart Choices (An election story)

 

I don't know your story and you don't really know mine. I don't know what's in the deepest recesses of your heart, nor do you know what is in mine. Yet I do know that we are children of the same Father God. We are His. We are blessed by Him, loved by Him, and cared for. We may know great sadness, even despair, but out of great pain, He can bring amazing joy.

What goes on behind closed doors we can only imagine in our neighborhoods and towns. We see with our eyes, but don't really open our hearts. We hear with our ears, but the truth is under the surface most of the time. I've judged others and so I have been judged. But it's time for a change of that hardened heart of mine. Is it time for yours too?

Not all of us will be voting for the same party at this election. Not all of us believe that Covid is as frightening as somebody else does. We make fun of what we don't understand and talk about what is different from us. I am as guilty as everyone else. I look, but I do not see sometimes. I do not see what is inside that person who is so very different from me; that person who makes different choices than I do, or holds different beliefs. 

I want to set my heart right. I want my soul to shine when I speak and in my actions. I want to be quick to ask for forgiveness when I've done wrong, and quick to forgive even if it is something from many years ago. I want to leave a legacy for my children of a life well-lived, even a life that has changed for the better with each passing year.

I want to view the world through the eyes of a child but not to live childishly. For there is a difference you see. My heart must be simple, moldable, the clay through which the Father can work. No matter who wins this election, or who comes out on top, or if I believe what is said on every single political commercial, I want to live right. I want to trust that our United States will go on and thrive. I want to believe that in God we trust and that He is always in control no matter who sits on any political throne.

Let's be the change. Let's stop the hate and the bitterness; the indifference and the anger. Be the change that you want your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews to see. Be the light and love. Do it with a simple heart of childlike wonder.