It's Friday! Yea! Please pour yourself a cup of your favorite coffee (I am about to drink my third!) and join me for a few thoughts which I hope will encourage you in your walk with God. 

When I woke up this morning I knew something was good about today. After the fog of a good night’s sleep cleared – it hit me. The mid-term elections are over (oh, and the Steelers won last night)! Yea! Now I must admit the primary reason for my gladness that Election Day is past is not because I have the privilege to vote for those who will represent me in government (a privilege so few around this world enjoy). I am grateful for this opportunity.  I really am! But I confess that the greatest cause for my joy is that finally – after week upon week of nauseating campaign ads on television and radio – these commercials will be gone (at least until the next election). I (and I am sure I’m not alone) won’t miss all the mud slinging distortion that comes across the airways from candidates of both parties. Why all the negative ads? Because research shows that they are effective! So the worse you can make your candidate appear – the better you look to potential voters (I'm guessing that’s the reasoning behind it). 

All of us are guilty of throwing some mud of our own. Perhaps not often. But surely sometimes. We put others down so that we look better. This is not the way of Christ. Jesus’ way is to consider others as more important than ourselves and then speak and act accordingly (see Philippians 2:3-4 and Ephesians 4:29 for starters). So instead of being negative and critical of others – we need to be looking for ways to encourage others and build them up – daily, as long as it is called Today (Hebrews 3:13). Let’s all make an extra effort to do so! 

Now that the election is over, I have enjoyed watching television without all those annoying political ads. Now I just have to brace myself for the coming avalanche of holiday commercials enticing us to buy gifts with money we don't have for people we may not necessarily like! 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj