I Believe...

I felt like I needed to clarify a few things from yesterday's post, and I'm just feeling passionate about some things today. So this post was born. I threw in some fun ones too to break up the seriousness.

I believe:

...that our president deserves a little respect. Do I agree with him in most areas? No. But I can't think of too many jobs that would be more difficult or more stressful. And I get really sick of the hateful comments I see from a lot of people. Disagreeing is one thing, but mean, nasty jokes and comments are completely another. I guess this is one of the reasons I wrote my post about politics yesterday.

...That every winter should be like this one. Snowy for a day or two, and then warm the next few so it melts right away. I'm kind of liking the blue-skies-in-January thing too.

...that people who disagree with us deserve a little respect. This was also my main point yesterday. We're never going to all get along. Friendly debate can be a good thing. But I've seen a lot of "friendly" debates turn ugly. I've seen friendships end because of hateful comments made during political debates. This is not okay! That's what I meant when I said, "We need to stop letting the party line separate us."

...that some days you just need some chocolate!

...that as Christians our main job is to LOVE PEOPLE. Not condemn them. Not separate ourselves from those who believe differently than us. But to feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. And above all, LOVE LOVE LOVE. Call me a hippy if you want, but that's what I believe. We need to share Christ's love through ours!

...that these two are pretty good replacement babies for the ones I don't have yet

...that I can be a Republican and still think it's okay to be environmentally conscious. (to be completely honest, I'm not environmentally conscious. But I wish I was. I was just using that example for the sake of this point). Do I think it's more important to save unborn babies than trees? Yes. But that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to try to save the trees too. This is what I was talking about yesterday. That I'm a Republican, but that doesn't mean I disagree with everything a Democrat might believe just for the sake of disagreeing.

...that everyone needs to read this book (and most people probably already have! I was late getting on the bandwagon)

...that it's okay that I don't let myself get totally wrapped up in politics (hence my decision to stay off of Facebook on election day next year...until I realized election day was also my birthday :-P) I'm going to be totally honest with you: I literally panicked the day Barack Obama became president. Mostly because he is so opposite of most of what I believe. But I think in the past 3 years I've grown up a bit and realized that no matter who the president is, God is still God. No matter what the President believes or what happens to our country, God is unchanging. I can't put my faith in my government just like I can't put my faith in any human thing. I have to put my faith in God. That doesn't mean I should quit fighting for what I believe. But it does mean that no matter what is going on around me, I don't have to worry or stress out about it because God works all things together for good.

And with that, I think I'll cool it for awhile with this political/serious talk. I don't often write about things like this because I have this horrible "disease" where I basically get my heart broken whenever someone disagrees with me. Ha! But I'm learning to build a thicker skin and to just not care. That's the reason we live in a free country, right? So we can believe and practice whatever we want (within reason/the law, of course). My point is just that we should agree to disagree sometimes instead of hurting others!