A short policical rant

This isn’t about my approbation or condemnation of our current president, or my political views at all; who I vote for is no one’s business.  That being said, I just saw a picture of our president with a few comments… and some of the comments kind of made me mad.  Most political things do.  First of all, I don’t care what your political beliefs are.  The reason the voting booths are private is because your vote is between you and God.  Don’t drag me into it.   Besides, I'm a grown, educated woman; I can review the facts and make my own political choices, thank you very much. Secondly, whether you vote for the current leaders of our country or not, they still deserve your respect; they are doing a difficult job to the best of their abilities and until you’ve been there and done that, shut up.  

Why I’m upset here is that someone stated by this photo that we should pray for the president because it was “so sad” that the president and first lady had their left hands on their chests while facing the flag.  First, the picture was probably photo shopped and secondly, really?  That’s what got you sad?  Aren’t there bigger issues to pray for and greater things to be sad about?

My parents raised my brother and me to treat every Saturday evening as a family devotional time.  We’d sit on the floor, eat pizza, read from the Bible, talk about our day, and then pray.  We’d pray for four things: our family, our church (both our local church and the global church), our nation, and our world.  When we’d pray for our nation, we’d always pray for our leaders, whether we liked them and agreed with their policies or not.  The point my parents hammered into me every Saturday evening is simple: Romans 13 is pretty clear that we should respect the governing authorities.  And just as a point of reference, Paul wrote the book of Romans around 58 AD, during the reign of Nero and while being persecuted by the Jewish leaders for his beliefs.  Yes, we have the right to disagree with our leaders' decisions, no one is perfect and no one makes the best choice for every decision, but we have the responsibility to honor them, and respect them: "pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed" (Romans 13:7, ESV)

So go ahead, pray for the nation, pray for our leaders, pray for the upcoming election.  But when you pray for the current president, please don’t pray for trivialities.  Instead, pray for wisdom in his decisions, pray for his family, pray for unity in congress to make decisions that are best for all the people of our county.  In short, pray for our nation, not your political preferences.