Kissing the President.

DISCLAIMER: This post will irritate many and probably cause me to get quite a few emails. But hey, I'm ok with that.



So, recently, I heard Abi say to a friend of hers, "I love President Obama!" Big gulp and bite my tongue.

Let me say, right up front. I did not vote for Barack Obama. I agree with just about nothing that comes out of his mouth. I am a die-hard Republican, 100% pro-life, and one of the most politically conservative people you will ever meet.

But I support the President.

Yep, you heard me right.

Respect is a BIG thing in our home. We respect each other with our actions as much as we can. We pray for each other openly every day. We thank eack other, compliment each other, and encourage each other as a way of life. To accompany that attitude, Rod and I decided a long time ago that our children would never hear us talk negatively about leaders in their lives. This includes their teachers, their pastors, their relatives, and certainly the President of the United States. I am actually VERY protective of that office, and with good reason.

I don't want to raise a child who has an attitude of ungratefulness and disrespect about her country. Let me explain.

There is a HUGE difference in respecting the office someone holds and respecting the actual person him or herself. I recognize that President Obama and I will never see eye to eye on any political matters. However, I also know that he is the Leader of the government that I live under. As a Christian, I am charged to pray for him. To believe the best about him. To FIND the good in him. Because it IS there. (somewhere...heehee) By talking trash about him and letting my child hear it, I am teaching her that disagreeing with someone means that you don't have to respect them... that respect is given based on us believing the same way.

Now, with that said, trust is most certainly earned. Has President Obama earned my trust, based on his track record? No. But the office of the Presidency certainly has. A President saw us through a Civil War and helped abolish slavery. A President guided troops through two world wars and assisted in freeing the Jews from generational torment. A President sent my father-in-law to Vietnam and brought him home to a country to didn't appreciate his service. A President helped end the Cold War. A President saw us through the darkest days of our nation's history after airplanes crashed into buildings and the sky fell around us.

My dad instilled in me that in life, you can be part of the problem, or part of the solution. Complaining, fault-finding, and bad-mouthing certainly plays a huge part in the problem of raising a generation with no respect for our leaders. See, when my father-in-law went overseas and fought a thankless war and came home to a country that didn't validate his sacrifice, it was simply because our country forgot that we don't have to respect the cause... we respect the people who lay their lives down FOR the cause.

So, how do we instill respect in our kids when a President we didn't vote for is in the office? We refer to him as PRESIDENT Obama... not Obama. We pray for him. We talk about his responsibilities. We talk about the things we don't agree with, but that America chose him and we want him to be safe and healthy. We talk about how he's a dad to two little girls. We talk about God's love for him. Basically, we try to offer her facts without a great deal of emotion attached. As a result, we are raising a little girl who loves her President. She said she'd give him a kiss on the cheek if he came to her school. Far be it from me to tear her innocence away. That will come soon enough, through a vast assortment of people who don't speak well of him. All she knows is he has the highest office in the world, he lives in a big white house, and we pray for him. Alot.

And for now, that's enough.