Today is Election Day.  For many, it will be a day of tension, or even fear.  The tension and fear will come from those who have much to lose after the election ends and new policies begin in the next few years.

For me, the trepidation comes from losing those things I hold most dear. 

1. Home schooling: I choose to home school my children.  The public school system is hostile to the Gospel and God’s law.  Children are taught young to stand in line, to behave the way the system wants them to behave, and they are quick to medicate the children who can’t fit inside the square hole provided by the school board.  Even the ways they are taught basic things reflect an absence of God.  So I home school my children so that they know from their earliest days that God made all the colors of their crayon box.  That paper comes from the trees God planted from the beginning.  And as they grow in their education, they copy bible verses for their handwriting time.  I know God demands from me Godly children.  And how can I do that if I am allowing someone else to ‘socialize’ and educate my children outside of God’s word.  The worlds hates God, and hates the fact that the bible claims that only Christ and forgiveness through Him from your sins.  There is nothing that we can do as fallen humans to save ourselves.  So homeschooling is a natural thorn in the side of society.  Most (not all) homeschoolers do so for religious reasons.  And for that reason alone it will fall under the gun.

2. Abortion: millions of babies are murdered every year.  And by murder, I mean that a heart, beating by God’s design and by His creative mind, is stopped by instrumentation.   It is pre-meditated murder.  I know of women who say their baby was tested positive for defects and therefore terminated.  Human life is not on the same playing field as a warped plastic lid, to be tossed away when it becomes useless due to deformity.  I also know how hard it is to raise and to deal with a handicapped child.  There are two such families in our church.  But those lives are still precious and serve a purpose, or God would not have allowed them to exist.  My heart aches for those children.  I have 4 kids because I believe that children are my inheritance from God, and that God will grant all I need while I raise them.  And sure, it isn’t easy!!  There are bad days and days when I would rather be doing ANYTHING else!!  But they are still the only legacy I shall leave behind and most importantly, God will demand an accounting for what I do with them.  The same goes for women who abort theirs because children ruin lives and women’s bodies.

3. Finance: as I stated before, we have 4 children, so our budget can be very tricky at times.  We have lived our lives with financial sacrifice and are now having rewards for that wisdom.  But so many people have chosen to live beyond their means, incur debt beyond their ability to pay that off.  Now a crisis has hit, when those loans are being asked in repayment.  Being responsible with our finances has gained us no reward in the societal structure.  In fact, as tax payers we will be called upon to help repay all the foreclosures and failed credit markets.  There are even college graduates who have fled the country to avoid repaying their 60K plus loans.  Who pays that??? We do.  The bible makes a distinction between the fools and their money, and the truly needy.  My children go with me when we volunteer, we collect canned goods for the food bank, and my son does many tasks with his scout troop to clean up neighborhoods and local parks.  It is necessary to help those in need and we are commanded by God to assist the widows and orphans.  But we are not called to provide for an able bodies worker who profits more from NOT doing anything, waiting on their handout.

I won’t be a doomsday type of person; I don’t think that there is a witch hunt out on the things I hold dear.  I don’t believe (like some of my peers) that there will be forced sterilization, fees for extra children per house, all taxes will increase to 50% in every household, terrorism will find a home in the US, family values will disintegrate, and Christians will be enslaved.  But I do believe that the three things I do hold dear will continue to get worse or my freedom will be removed from me.  And for those reasons, I will pray today and keep my thoughts focused on God.  He will grant me peace, and He will also put the next president in position.  And God will be Glorified and be in complete control no matter who that is.  So have peace, my friends.  The Creator of the entire universe is still on His throne, seated at the right have of God.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 16:31-33 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?  Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

This week has been one of those weeks that if I believed in voodoo I would swear that someone has a doll of me and is torturing it daily to see how quickly I can snap.  Or if I believed in luck or such, I would think someone “walked over my grave” as they say.

Sunday

Joshy was lying in bed snuggling with us around 0545 when he rolled over and rolled off my side of the bed.  Our bed is high and Ben left one of his drawers open just enough… So I pulled Joshy back into bed with me and rolled over to ‘kiss’ his boo boo, I then noticed the wet spot on my pillow case.  It was blood and he had cut his head well on the corner of the drawer.  I cleaned it up after applying pressure only to be fairly certain it was going to need either stitches or staples.  So off we traipse for more miles to be added to our ER card.  Since it was hidden in his hair line, the doc chose not to stitch.  But if it was on his face, they would have gone ahead with them.  So add another scar to Joshy.

Monday

When we arrived at Coop so that I can lead gym class early, for a change.  By the time the first hour of class was well under way, JJ was proving to be rather fussy.  Since he is a delightful child, I knew he was sick.  A pal of mine noticed goopy stuff coming out of his ear, and I thought his double ear infection may have ruptured, which can happen.  Thankfully, I have great friends at Coop who helped me with gym class since I was running around with a toddler clinging to me.  My legs were smoked by that afternoon.  JJ would not let me go.  And the Ped office had no openings till Tuesday.  So the wait was on and JJ was a ticking time bomb.

Tuesday

Since this is my ‘faith building’ week, the night passed with JJ getting up several times in pain and NOT wanting to take medicine.  Joshy had a nightmare, so the night was unbelievably short!!!  We survived to the doc apt.  JJ’s ears had not ruptured but they were not improving after the 10 days of antibiotics.  So he got another round of that, and I got fussed at for not calling them sooner about his yeast infection.  “But doc, I am here now talking to you about it and COULD NOT get in yesterday, so I want some grace here.”

So on to Wally world we go with a screaming toddler, handed off the RX request over the shrieking, purchased the couple necessary things (above the still screaming child) and got to see friends at Wally also and hopefully said pleasant things over the screaming child.

We make it home, all a live, mom is not totally nuts yet… then the can of pop falls from the hands of the 7yr old to BUST and spray all over the van interior.

At this point I truly had to hide away in my room for a bit to get my thoughts and emotions back in control.  I believe in God and in His word given to be for my daily walk in faith.  So I believe that there is nothing new under the sun.  That every day is given of God.  That He will not allow me to endure that which I cannot handle.  God will give me the strength to endure when I feel faint. And He has given me fellow believers to lean on and to surround me in prayer when I need it.  And this verse has been taped to my bathroom for a week now from my bible study and I had already chosen to memorize it before this week even happened.  But boy did I need it this week!!!

Psalm 142:1-7   A MASKIL¹ OF DAVID, WHEN HE WAS IN THE CAVE. A PRAYER. With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.  ² I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.  ³ When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.  ⁴ Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul.  ⁵ I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."  ⁶ Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!  ⁷ Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.

So with all the talk about the economy going bust, the fuel crisis, and the myriad of other things that can and will go wrong in this day and age, do we really have anything to cling to that is solid and will last??

I offer a suggestion to you: faith in an unchanging being.  And that being is God.  From the moment this world was created to now, He has been faithful and stable.

Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

Isaiah 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.

And because God is faithful, because He is everlasting, there is immeasurable strength that He possesses.  That strength is offered to us as we lean on Him for that strength.

Isaiah 40: 29-31  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has not might He increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

When we call upon the Lord as our rock, our shelter, our anchor, our harbor in the storms of life, He will deliver us upon dry land and wrap us in His merciful arms of safety.

Psalm 31:7-10   ⁷ I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,  ⁸ and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.  ⁹ Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.  ¹⁰ For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

God is the only one who is everlasting to everlasting, and He is the only being who will not and has not changed throughout time.  He is the firm foundation.  Have faith and cling to God for peace.

I finally got JJ on video doing his adorable little ‘play ball’ thing.  He started this all by himself and just giggles the whole time he does it.  I just love watching this stage as they learn so much motor skills and hand-eye coordination!!

You know, as a mid-west girl, the beach was never a place I wanted to go.  It was never a place that drew me, calling to my like a long lost friend needing quality time.  But it has become that while we live in North Carolina.  My hubby is able to get a large room as the retreat leader for various retreats he conducts in Myrtle Beach.  So we traipse along with him to be bums on the beach and to roll around in the surf. 

This week he had another retreat for singles at Myrtle Beach and we drove down to meet him there for an overnight stay.  We were on the beach in swimwear within 10 minutes of hitting the hotel and the kids got so sandy that we had to bath them after we came back in.  This time Joshy enjoyed rolling around in the waves because the water was unbelievably warm!!  JJ got his feet wet, but would have nothing to do with the water after it knocked him down once.  The kids did learn valuable lessons about tide dragging; they kept getting pushed down the beach from where I was watching.  Nothing dangerous, but a good lesson in beach survival.  The waves were impressive with the tropical storm pounding the coast of Florida; the effects of it were visible as the surf crashed along the beach.  But it was fun and so relaxing to sit on a balcony and listen to the ocean lap against the shore.  We slept with the balcony door open and the kids slept like rocks!!   It was great, and I do believe we shall miss this.