Voting Is A Blessed Privilege!

Do we live in a great country or what? While I may not agree with the candidates that have brought excitement to the election process, there's something encouraging about seeing our fellow citizens standing in line and dealing with a few delays for the privilege of voting. Russia just completed their election and by most accounts from neutral observers, the outcome was manipulated and set before the votes were cast. Our country has always had its errors, blips, and even some fraudulent stuff in our elections but on the whole we are blessed to be citizens of a nation that provides the blessed privilege for each of us to participate in our governing process.

Yesterday may have only been a primary election but it was our primary election. While some may think November is the most important time to vote, you need only look at the ballot list to know that those vying to run against each other in November will ultimately impact our very lives. It was not convenient for me to vote because of my schedule including me needing to get to my inner city Bible club meeting. I received some emails from well intentioned friends who had some schemes in mind about how to make the primary vote one of protest and sending a signal. The problem with many of their methods is that they would preclude one from voting in an important run off, if it were needed. My wife and I voted our conscience for conservative folks to fill the positions on the ballot. We did this as best we could consistent with biblical principles. There's a fellow I work with who recently said those who don't vote give up their right to complain about those put into office. We know that's not true because in America we can complain about any and everything we choose because we have freedom to do so, and we have freedom to do so because we have elections, and people can make a difference in the direction of our community and our country.

Here's some expressions about the privilege and power when we exercise our right to vote:

From the 18th Century

If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes.--Daniel Webster

When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty. --Noah Webster

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.--Thomas Jefferson

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual--or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.-- Samuel Adams

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.--Thomas Paine

Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.--William Penn

From the 19th Century

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.--Abraham Lincoln

From the 20th Century

If the people fail to vote, a government will be developed which is not their government…. The whole system of American Government rests on the ballot box. Unless citizens perform their duties there, such a system of government is doomed to failure.--Calvin Coolidge

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. --Franklin D. Roosevelt

The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.--Dwight D. Eisenhower

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.--John F. Kennedy

In a world that might say one vote doesn't matter..., it does matter because each person is of infinite worth and value to God... Your vote is a declaration of importance as a person and a citizen.--Billy Graham

From the 21st Century

We have a duty to our country to participate in the political process. See, if you believe in freedom, you have a duty to exercise your right to vote to begin with. I'm [here] to encourage people to do their duty, to go to the polls. I want all people, no matter what their political party is or whether they even like a political party, to exercise their obligation to vote.--George W. Bush

I don't know how this election cycle will come out. I don't know who will be our next president. But I know that we are a blessed people to be able to voice our choices as God leads. In the end, He holds it all in His hands and I thank Him for His great mercy and goodness which He has poured out on this nation. May God bless America and may God help us to be the people He would have us to be! Amen. .......More later.