#2 - I Voted

Stephen and I were planning on voting next Tuesday, like most people probably are. But with our trip to Georgia that we are taking, we took the time to vote early yesterday.

I read in our newspaper that there are just over 63,000 voters registered in our county. Yesterday when I went, I was voter # 4997. We've probably had over 20,000 people vote early so far. I don't know what the numbers are usually like for presidential elections, but I really hope we have a great turnout by the end of voting on Tuesday!

I definitely believe that no matter what the outcome is Tuesday night, God is in charge. God already knows the outcome and He has a plan for our country. Now, that doesn't mean that the people in our country will necessarily make the right decisions over the next six months, or two years, or fifty years and we'll live happily ever after. I think we all know that's not true.

I do believe that no matter who the president is - Romney, Obama, or Yo Mama, as Christians we are called to respect their authority. I believe we must pray for them and the decisions they are making. I don't believe in talking a lot of junk about people in authority. I don't think complaining after elections does a whole lot of good (do you??) because I've never seen it change anything. I'm talking about the kind of complaining that happens between coworkers or spouses or friends, that never goes anywhere beyond your mouth to their ears.

So this election season, I guess what I'm trying to say is, respect the authority. If the person you voted for doesn't get into office, we still need to teach our kids to respect the office. Even if it's the state auditor or a judge. Our kids need to be taught to pray for these people because they are making decisions we would never want to be involved in. (Side note: If you think you could do a better job, you should probably start campaigning for the next election.)

#71 - Really understand the 2008 election and vote

I can honestly say that I voted in this election fully prepared, and that was definitely my goal. On October 28, I went and got a sample ballot so I knew exactly who was running in each race, down to the Soil and Water Conservation Group. Between the Voter Guide that AFR provided, the background profiles provided by the N&O, reading two other local newspapers, and googling candidates (and finding lots of personal details on Wikipedia), I was rockin' and rollin'!!

That's why Stephen and I didn't do early voting - I wanted to make sure I had all my ducks in a row before voting. Yesterday, after he got off work, he waltzed into our polling place, and waltzed right back out in 12 minutes. He said it would have been less, but there was a guy who was in there from another district, and they spent about 5 minutes explaining to him the problem. I got to the polls a little after 6 last night, and from my stepping out of the car to starting the car up again it took 7 minutes. Woot woot!! From what I hear, pretty much everyone else had that same experience yesterday.

Of course, not everyone I voted for won. Not even half probably!! But at least I know I did the research and I feel really good about who I voted for. I feel very accomplished.

*Edit* My friend Nathaniel made a great point today. I know a lot of people are excited for Obama and a lot of people are disappointed by Obama's win. But as Nate said - Our hope is in Jesus, not in any president.