The need to process.

Okay, so here is my thought for the day. An email I sent my brother. You see I sent an email to my family and friends called, "Getting to know you". You know, it was one of those surveys where you answer silly questions? We've all done it. I got alot of responses. Well, my Mum sent an email to her kids after that, basically saying that she felt alone and wished that her kids would at least send a note once in awhile. (that survey was the first email to Mum in a long time, my bad!) Well, one of the questions in the survey caused some people to get offended. It was "What do you fear the most right now?" Some of us answered, "the new President"! My brother responded in a sarcastic manner to that, being a democrat and said that he couldn't write back to Mom until he processed his feelings. So I sent him the following message:

Steven: (and others I'm sharing this with)

I guess I'm lost cause I don't know what is going on. What do you need to process? I started a process of communication with a fun email and that stirred some valid emotions that needed attention! Mom's email is simple enough to understand. She just needs to feel a connection with her kids. Her email was a big "SCREAM" to alert us to snap out of it! We need to stop being so overwhelmed with things and take a moment to love one another. Reconnect on a weekly basis with our family. I'm not understanding how that would require "processing"

Is it because several of us answered a question on that "Getting to know you" survey that didn't sit well? Big deal! So what? We are your family and we love you no matter what. So if one of your family doesn't have the same passion for something that you do, oh well! Let's face the facts, everyone has a valid reason for feeling or fearing whatever political position a new president may have. Everyone has valid fears that they must work through. Expressing doubt and fear over the state of a country is certainly a good thing. It causes us to be more observant when before we may have been complacent. It forces us to start looking at things, gather information from a larger source, process that with a deeper committment for truth and hopefully come to some type of understanding of the state of the country. How does this election effect us personally? Because of our fear and doubt, we become better citizens and more aware of what our politicians are doing. Because of our doubt, we are more focused on the issues that effect our own part of the world where before we may have been too busy to see what was important. Because of our fear we may, God willing, look at things deeper and not accept as easily. The real fear is quite easy to understand. We, Americans don't like to be controlled. We, Americans thought that our government was controlled by us and that we, citizens made choices through our elected officials. Our elected officials represented the people...what the people valued morally and ethically therefore was protected within the system of democracy. Americans believed that they had some control over their lives. However, the fear has crept into the hearts of so many because they are waking up! Good citizens, every day people like us now have no control because little by little we gave it up into the hands of others who didn't value it as deeply as we thought they did. Now, we have to stay awake and be more watchful of what "our" politicians do or say or promise, because nobody likes to be overpowered by anyone. We want control over our own lives. As history as shown us, the more you allow government to "save" you, the less freedom you have and when we sit by and let others solve our problems, we become enslaved by them. Be loving and kind, tolerate and patient with your family, always! Be committed and passionate about your political beliefs. But never allow that to cause you to turn away from your family. Take a deep breath and love them. So what I'm telling you, little brother, is that your political passion is commendable and I applaud you! I also applaud everyone else in my family who are becoming aware and reacting to the doubts and fears they have. We will be vigilant and become better listeners, ever watchful of what is true and what is lies! And I will send this to everyone as well.

And that is my thought for the day.