Just Doing His Job

I saw a few minutes of Barack Obama’s remarks yesterday (9/23/08) about the economic crisis and the possible legislation that Congress is debating.  A reporter asked if he would go to Washington to cast a vote on whatever agreement was reached.  His answer was (my paraphrase) that, if the vote looked like it was going to be close, he would go.  Otherwise, he would continue campaigning.  I was offended by that response.

Today, John McCain announced that he would suspend his campaign to go to Washington to take part in the debate/discussion/resolution of the immediate economic crisis.  He also called for the 1st debate, scheduled for Friday, to be postponed – not cancelled, mind you – just moved to a later time.  Almost immediately, the media and the democrats started accusing McCain of using this as a political ploy to play games.

Maybe I am too naive for my own good but, isn’t he already a U.S. Senator?  Isn’t the job of a U.S. Senator to participate in the business of the Senate?  Isn’t the pending economic bailout legislation part of Senate business?

Why wouldn’t John McCain (and Barack Obama and Joe Biden, also U.S. Senators) want to be there?  Don’t they feel some sort of obligation to do the jobs they currently hold instead of only focusing on the ones they HOPE to hold?

When it’s all said and done, the economy may be the issue that loses the election for John McCain.  Whether he’s elected or not, I give him credit for showing up to work and doing his job, regardless of what that means for his campaign!

Boy, What A Story!

As a Christian parent, I have prayed for many things for my children.  One of the things that I have prayed for has been the right words and explanations to say when asked about biblical things.  This morning, I had to pray that prayer again, quickly…

As everyone was getting ready for school, my son asked me about the baptism we had seen in church on Sunday morning.  He was interested because our pastor was NOT the one that baptized on Sunday but there is a picture of the pastor baptizing someone on a booklet from the church.  As our conversation about which ministers can baptize and how different churches divide that responsibility progressed into a conversation about what it means to be baptized, my 5 year old daughter was listening.

Believe me, this is NOT normal morning, getting ready for school conversation at our house so I was a little taken aback to start with.  At the same time, I wanted to seize the teachable moment and make sure that I didn’t let such an unexpected, GOLDEN opportunity pass!

When my son said that “the baptism didn’t last very long” (meaning you didn’t get to stay in the water and swim), I explained that it was just meant to be a picture of the change that had happened in your heart.  I told about going into the water as a sinner (“old self”) and coming out of the water with sins washed away (“new self”).  I explained that real salvation happened when you confessed your sins and asked Jesus to come into your heart.  I told them what the Bible says about being born again and becoming a “new creature in Christ”.

“Cousin L is a new person,” my son said, remembering that his older cousin has accepted Christ and we went to her baptism service.

Even as I was talking, I felt like my presentation wasn’t quite as organized as I might have hoped it would be.  I covered all the basics but I felt like I was jumping around a bit.  Even through my less than perfect explanation, I saw something in my son’s eyes that made me think he was taking it all in.  He’s almost 8 and, maybe for the 1st time, it’s all starting to make a little sense.  During all this conversation, my 5 year old didn’t say anything (VERY UNUSUAL) but, obviously, she was listening.

I tried to wrap up our talk by telling them that we would talk more about this when we had more time.  As they shuffled off to gather backpacks and rest mats and water bottles, their ride to school showed up in the driveway.  On her way out the door, my daughter said “Mom, that was SOME story!”

I could only smile as I sent her off to her day.  Yes, honey, it is SOME story indeed!

Thank you, Mr. Obama

Like many people across the country, I spent time this weekend trying to find out more about Sarah Palin.  I read news articles, listened to profiles on a variety of news channels, watched video clips and talked to people I was with about what they knew about her.  No one I talked to knew very much but they did, already seem to have strong opinions.

Yesterday, when I got home after a short weekend trip, I learned of the announcement by the McCain-Palin campaign that Gov. Palin’s unmarried, teenage daughter is pregnant.  Regardless of your politics, this is a bad situation that happens far too often in our country.  The fact that it has happened in the Palin family makes it, potentially, a campaign issue as well as the life-changing, difficult tragedy that it is anyway.

I am NOT a Barack Obama supporter in any way.  In spite of that, I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to Mr. Obama for his actions and his words regarding the Palin pregnancy situation.  Not only did he declare the issue and candidates’ children “off-limits”, he said that this situation didn’t have any relevance to the politics at hand (my parapharase).

I don’t know enough about Sarah Palin yet to know my opinion of her as a politician.  As a mother, I know she’s in a situation that no mother wants to find herself in.  The coming days in her family’s life are going to be difficult enough without Obama “piling on”.  To his credit, he didn’t do that when he had the chance yesterday and, thankfully, all indications are that he won’t start, at least not where this personal, painful matter is concerned.