Presidential Primary Season is in full swing and ‘tis the season for awkward moments around the dinner table, cringe worthy conversations with coworkers, and jaw dropping Facebook rants. It has become impossible to shield myself from it and now I’m realizing just how much my kids are picking up on all of this.

A few weeks ago, my son came to me and asked why our President is such a bad man. I was floored. I dug a little deeper and it turned out he had been quietly listening to a conversation between extended family members. My heart broke a little bit but it allowed a great conversation with both of my children as they experience the first presidential election season they will remember.

The remainder of this post is what I told my children and I’m sharing it because it’s helpful for me to read my own words as I struggle to find peace with this upcoming election.

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Being the President of the United States is one of the hardest jobs in the world. The President deserves respect, no matter who the person is. When someone is the President, he or she has to make hard choices every single day. And no matter what the President decides, someone will disagree and be upset. We respect the President because that person is the President.

When it’s time to choose a new President, it’s up to us to know as much as we can about every single person who wants the job. No one is perfect because we are all human. Most likely, you will never see a candidate who will think the same exact way as you do about all the things that are important to you. So we have to decide what we think are the most important things and work really hard to find the person who agrees with us on the most things.

Now. Because we are Christians, we want to follow Jesus. The Bible tells us that God is sovereign in all things and it also says we should pray for our leaders. So the most important thing we can do before an election, as people who love Jesus, is to pray for God to place just the right leaders in office. Then we make sure we show up, no matter how busy that Tuesday is, and we vote. It’s an honor and a privilege to help decide who is in charge of our nation.

Here’s the tricky part, guys. Once the votes are cast and the election is over, the person chosen might not be the person we wanted to win. It’s okay to be disappointed. It’s okay to be sad. But if we truly believe that God is sovereign, then we have to accept the outcome and continue to pray for our leaders as the Bible tells us. For us to be disrespectful, hateful, or mean towards the new President is a lot like us telling God that He messed up and we know better. It doesn’t matter if we think the President is making mistakes. It doesn’t matter if we think the President is doing a poor job. We will show respect to our leaders, we will continue to pray for them, and we will continue to show up when it’s time to vote.