About Voting and God

I've been thinking lately (oh no, not again!- commence eye-rolling sequence) about voting, of course. You know a lot of my friends are religious and, like me, prayed hard about who to vote for in this election. I am sure that they were all just as worthy of personal revelation as me - if not more so. So, my question is why would we come up with different answers? Why did I and some of my friends feel the Spirit tell us to vote for President Obama, while others were absolutely sure He was telling them to vote for Governor Romney? How could this be? Surely God knows who would be best for this country. So if we're worthy to get the right answer and He knows that answer, why would He tell some people one thing and others another?


Well, I have a theory (as usual). What if who we voted for didn't matter so much to the country, but mattered more to ourselves personally? What if God sees our voting as a personal growth experience for each of us, rather than simply a way to choose our next President?

My theory is based on a couple of principles that I've grown up with in the Mormon faith. One is that God is in charge. No matter what happens in this election, good or bad, or in most anything in life, it is because it's part of His plan. Now, that doesn't mean that He wants bad things to happen to us - murderers to kill, plane crashes or hurricanes to come and make us unhappy or an evil dictator to take over our country. It means that they all have a purpose - usually to teach us something. We can't comprehend His purposes most of the time but eventually we get out of our experiences what we need, assuming we have the right attitude and handle them properly. So, given this, no matter who wins - God is in charge and it's what is best for our country and us in it. EVEN if Obama wins, brings our country into a Socialist society and becomes the next Hitler, as some right-wingers have suggested, God has some sort of purpose in mind for us and it's what He meant to happen. Maybe that's a copout, as my hubby might say, but I believe it. Actually, I think that God isn't going to affect the outcome of the race, at all. I think that He will allow whoever we choose to win so that we reap the consequences, good or bad, and learn from that. Either way, God is in charge.

Given that, it doesn't really matter to God who we vote for, in terms of the outcome of the race. What is more important to Him is what we learn from our own experience in voting, which brings us to the second principle that I've grown up with. And that is that this Earth is a school and, as His children, we are the most important part of it. One of the major facets of God's plan is for us to learn as we go so that we can become the person He wants us to become. So, as we take this election seriously, read, watch the news and listen to our friends, we take all that information, the culture we grew up with and all of the words, quirks and advice from the niches of opinion around us and we come up with our own opinion. Then, most importantly, we go to God for advice. And God is so happy that we've gone to Him for help that He wants to reward us with the best learning experience we can get. So, if that means confirming what we've learned as our opinion so that we stay on that particular track towards who we are becoming, then great! But, if it means maybe giving us a surprise answer, differing from what we have been thinking, then maybe that is a lesson in and of itself. It doesn't matter who the exact person is, it just matters what we are getting from the whole experience. That's what matters to Him - just whatever we can get from this experience to bring us closer to Him. Each individual child of His on this earth is more important to Him than all the elections in the history of the world. And, our getting closer to returning to Him is His biggest goal for all of us on this Earth.

So, when you reflect on this election and its outcome, remember that God loves each and every one of us, no matter who we voted for. And, that we are all in the same boat, here on Earth, learning and hopefully becoming who God intends for us to be. Don't be upset with your crazy tea party, right-wing nutcase friend, or your insane lefty communist friend just because they didn't vote the same as you. Remember that we are all on the same journey but on different paths. And our paths are what is best for us and God loves us all the same. As long as we end up in the same place- back up with Him, that is all that matters.