Thoughts on Voting Day

Today was an interesting experience.  When our oldest daughter was old enough to vote, she had already left for college.  We went through the “absentee ballot” process with her, which was interesting, but it was largely by phone so no “hands on” experience.

Today was a little different.  Today, our oldest son was of voting age, and he went with me to the polls for the Missouri Primary.  There are a lot of experiences with our children that are memorable.  Chief among them are being able to witness their births, and for the older three, their re-birth.  Baptizing your children is truly a joyous thing.

With Nathanael, heading out into the woods to hunt the first time, and the first time he got behind the wheel of my truck are certainly things that stand out.  But today was again, a very interesting experience.

I don’t think most of us in this country truly appreciate what it means to have the freedom to vote for our elected officials.  We love to sit around and complain about the government, and we love to throw stones at those who disagree with us.  But too often, we fail to realize what a blessing it is to have the freedom to make those complaints and voice those differences.

Going to the polls with my son for the first time was a good reminder of what a great blessing it is to live in this nation.  It has its issues.  It is certainly not the nation our Founders dreamt of in many ways.  But, for now at least, we can still make that trip to the polls unhindered, unchallenged, and unafraid.  

I felt a sense of pride in going with my son today.  As if in some sense we’re passing this legacy down to the next generation.  And it caused me to think of several things.

1.  Again, simply the great blessing of having this freedom.

2. The supreme need for vigilance in protecting these rights.  The fact that in Missouri we had to vote on an amendment to our state constitution to protect our already guaranteed constitutional right to pray in public is a sign that things are slipping in the wrong direction.  We need to be aware and be involved.  Which leads to…

3. The great sense of responsibility laid on the heads of every citizen in this nation, and the sad reality that so many don’t take advantage. So many are uniformed and frankly, uninterested.  And…

4. The even greater responsibility for parents to be sure that we are sending godly men and women into this world, and into those voting booths.  The direction of our nation will be decided in part by other young men and women like our children.  That we educate them in the Word of God, and in the history of this nation, is vitally important.  

I thank God for voting day.  It’s a temporal blessing, one that fails in comparison to the great spiritual blessings we have in Christ.  But it is a blessing, and we ought to be thankful for it.   And I’m thankful to share this blessing with my oldest children, and continue to pray our younger children will still have the same freedom in the days to come.