Is America going to risk incredible loss for a few more minutes of playing?
Let me explain my title.
I woke up today on the eve of our country about to make a life-altering decision. We’ve made this decision many times before, but our values, integrity and principles have changed over the years. We’ve let what we stand for as a nation get influenced by oftentimes misleading choices that are not founded on Godly promises. And we are paying for it.
I remember when I was a child, we followed the “street light” rule. When all the kids up and down the street played together in the evening, we kept our eyes on the street lights. When one of us saw that the light had come on, we instantly STOPPED our play, and everyone scampered off home.
To today’s youth this probably sounds absurd. But every houseful of children followed that same rule. When the street light came on it was time to stop playing and get home. We probably didn’t realize then that it had to do with our safety. All we knew was that it cut into our playing time and fun. But because every kid’s household enforced that one rule, no one felt the exception. Until a family moved in one street over and this little girl was different. I remember the first time she was playing with us, and when we all stopped and headed home that she spoke those shocking words. “I don’t have to go home. My parents don’t make ME stop having fun.”
Her words became a scuttling earworm that began to twist its way into all of us. We discussed this at length with her the next time we were playing. We wanted to know how come she didn’t get into trouble? Why did her parents not have the same rule for her?
I don’t remember her answer being satisfactory to any of us, but it always made us wonder what was it her parents thought about what was right about raising kids that our parents must have missed the memo. Did our parents just want to keep us from having fun?
When I became a parent years later, guess what rule I incorporated into raising my son? You guessed it, the “street light” rule. Why? Because I understood now. I could look at my own motives and see that, like my parents, it was that I had the best interest in keeping my child safe and actually enabling him to have more fun the next day.
We have a Heavenly Father who has an even lovelier “Street Light” rule.
I want to tell you something that some of you might not believe. NO ONE will ever love you like God. There is no earthly savior, political belief, candidate, or manmade god that will ever save us. The world had a Savior, and they crucified Him on a cross.
But take heart—God planned for that to happen. His love for us is so great that we will never really understand the vastness of it until we stand before Him one day. But in the mean time we have our running orders that He has put into place to help us live safe godly lives.
The reason that the children of Israel got into trouble over and over was that they kept forgetting God. They kept leaving Him out of their lives. They—like that girl in my neighborhood—followed words other than God’s Word. If we had all let her words sway us and let them continue to worm their way into our actions, there’s no telling what would have happened in my household! I wasn’t going to risk extreme punishment for a few more minutes of playing.
I love it when I start my day off with a scripture that comes to my mind and then when I open my email devotional—there it is!
Deuteronomy 30:16 instructs, “For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience (humbly) before Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 30:19 urges, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
Voting is just another form of having a voice. The eminent question is which will our nation choose? The voice of a failing household with no restraints to protect us and give us a chance to enjoy another day? Or return under God's protection and loving kindness?
Can we turn our nation back around from where it has slipped by one person’s vote? I think so. If every one of us takes this Word to heart. God puts it down to “You and me.”
If you—if, I will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. The key word here is HUMBLE OURSELVES. If in humility of mind and soul we will come back to God, confess that we have let His Words slip from our nation, our homes, and our lives, he says that He will hear from heaven and heal our land.
It's not the politics of this hour that will save us, it’s who will restore the Word of God that was laid as our Foundation as a Nation.
We have another chance to look up not at a street light but at a Cross where the Light of this world hung! I hope we will all humble ourselves before we vote and head home.
I bless you and pray that you will let your voting choice lineup with the Word of God.