Super Tuesday, Super Hope.

I write this blog the night before Super Tuesday 2016.

I write this blog as our country is yet again at a crossroads and lost for which direction to turn. 

I write this blog as we are being inundated with promises and threats and smears and gossip from politicians who promise everything from equal wealth to making America great again.

I write this blog wondering what the world will look like tomorrow night or even more so, The night  in November. 

I write this blog with a heavy heart, but one that is determined and focused on the two little lives under my roof who are counting on me-- not the President or the many promises swirling around us.


My sister, who is ten years younger than me, asked today if elections are always like this or was she just not paying close enough attention before.  We all know that election year after election year, the promises come, the insults roll, and the race intensifies with every passing day.  Rumors are spread, scandals leaked, and heads are on the proverbial chopping block as campaigns stop at nothing to get their man or woman behind the desk of the world's most famously shaped office and like sheep led to the slaughter, we believe every single word.  This election season, I have to say, tops all the ones I've been a witness to in my 38 years of life so far.  I've never been so disappointed in our choices, but even more so, I've never been so disappointed in the behaviors we are witnessing among the contenders and their followers.  It's no longer party against party, but now person against person... our own Civil War of sorts happening right under our noses in the most passive aggressive of ways.

Tonight, I wonder as a mom what this means for my children's generation. 

I wonder what it means for them if we continue to let hatred run rampant among us as Christ followers.  Will people ever know what Jesus really looks like if we say we are His but we look nothing like Him?

I wonder if they'll ever learn to respect authority in a world that equates discipline with control and literally lives and breathes entitlement?

I wonder if their generation will get to participate in elections, or has our generation set the bar so low, it will just require them who can land the heaviest punch to win the White House?

I wonder if their view of people who are different from them will be skewed because of the common place practice now of badgering and belittling anyone who shares a different political, spiritual, or cultural belief from them?

I wonder if their generation will ever learn to say what they feel without fear of being called racist, sexist, or ignorant?  Could it be that we aren't setting the best examples for them to follow?  What happened to speaking the truth in love? 

I wonder if they'll still see people as people when they're my age.  Or will people be obstacles to cross or a means to an end of their quest for whatever it is they're searching for? 

I wonder if in this day of advancement and progress, where we are so overwhelmingly concerned about equality and political correctness, are we missing the forest for the trees?  Isn't every single piece of this a matter of the heart and not a policy we can put into place for humanity to follow? 

Oh, how my Momma heart is crying tonight! 

• I want my children to see people as people. 
• I want them to know that every life matters.  
• I want them to stand for what they believe in, while realizing their belief is useless if it's tearing people down when it's spoken.  I want their principles founded on the granite Word of God and not the quicksand of culture.
• I want them to work hard and lay their heads down in accomplishment and with a clear conscience at night because they did it the right way and didn't leave a trail of wounded people in their wake. 
• I want them to sit next to people polar opposites of them and never be affected by it. 
• I want them to look people in the eye and disagree with them and walk away with their integrity in tact. 
• I want them to challenge authority while respecting authority even when that person doesn't deserve it.  I want my children to respect authority because they know they themselves deserve it. 
• I want my babies to see every life through the finished work of Jesus... the greatest world leader, the greatest philanthropist, the greatest influencer of all time.  I want their heartbeats to sound identical to His.  I want their hearts to break for what breaks His.  I want them to line up with His compassion while possessing His steely resolve. 

Basically, I am saying that I want my children's generation to turn the tide. 

We have to be determined in this hour, mommas. We have to remember that those little eyes aren't looking at who sits in the Oval.  They're looking at us.   Every President who has put his hand on that Bible and took that precious oath was once a toddler.  A nine year old.  A teenager. And I don't know about you, but I haven't received a sign from Heaven that I am raising a contender. 

But I haven't received word I'm not. 

Regardless of the paths my children choose, their lives will impact someone.  I have to get this part right so their days will count.  I have to choose to seize the opportunities of dinner time, car pool, Saturday chores, afternoon yard time, and Thursday grocery runs to put into practice before their eyes all that I want their hearts to grab about this world and their place in it.  If I want them to live it, I have to live it first.  I have to live it clearly. 

I have to live it loudest of all. 

Louder than the candidates. 

Louder than their culture.

Louder than their peers.
Louder than the easy way or the popular way that will tempt them.

I have to practice what I preach every. single. day.

I do believe America is great. 

I just believe my children will make it greater.