Now What?

I’ll be honest, I am blown away by the election results. As a conservative, I am of course, happy with the turn out for the House and Senate. And yes, I am thrilled Trump won.

Election night was a blast around here. A few friends gathered while we ate and screamed our way through the results…simultaneously living vicariously through Karen Vaughn– who was AT the Trump Victory Party in New York. We sent silly photos like this back and forth all night:

I know I have readers from both sides of the aisle, and I pray you’ll hear me out. I have solid friends, that I respect wholeheartedly– and we could not be more different politically. Thankfully, throughout this election season, I maintained those friendships. I may have completely disagreed with them on plenty of issues, but we managed to listen to one another. And I understand their frustration, fear, and heartbreak over how the election turned out. Trust me. I felt the same way in 2008 and 2012.

What I am asking all of us to do is to be the bridge builders. The unifiers. The ones who reach out and work together on the things we share in common.  Find a place to serve – in church, maybe at the Red Cross, a food kitchen. Someone said, “You don’t have to see eye to eye to work shoulder to shoulder.” Wise words and so true.

To my liberal friends, and my conservative ones who never liked Trump to begin with, I pray you’ll give Trump and our new house and senate leaders a chance. The results of the election are in and we can all rejoice that the peaceful exchange of power in our country and it’s leadership has happened for over two centuries peacefully. I liked what Hillary said in her concession speech yesterday that our country was built to handle these changes. When Obama was elected, I’ll admit I wasn’t happy. But I made it my duty to pray for him and all of our country’s leaders nearly every day. I hope you’ll do the same.

To my conservative friends, no gloating. There is too much to be done and too much at stake for us to allow any more divisive talk. Reach out. Be a peacemaker. Don’t defend your decision, don’t engage in any kind of name-calling, fighting, or bickering. No antagonizing. Extend the olive branch. And pray.

Pray for this country and for it’s leaders. Pray for unity. Pray that who we elected will actually do what we sent them there to do. Pray for our nation’s future. And #believewithme…