Heart of the Matter Online – January 16, 2009

Today’s Heart of the Matter topic is Video Meme: Thoughts on Inauguration Day & President.  I’m going to break a little rule here, though, and not do a video.  Making video with our current set-up is possible, but definitely not easy.  The main computer doesn’t have a webcam, so we have to film with the video camera, transfer to the computer, edit, then save.  Far too much work in my world.

I do, though have some thoughts on Inauguration Day and homeschooling.  A good bit of our day on Tuesday is going to involve watching the Inauguration ceremony and reading online about the history of the Presidential Inauguration.  We are also going to spend some time praying for our new president.

During the election, we watched the speeches during the conventions.  We also saw lots of commercials and even part of the debates.  We started working through an election unit study, but it ended up being overwhelming to me.  That being said, the kids did learn a good bit about how elections work from our myriad discussions over those several months.  On election night, we planned to stay up until the winner was announced.  Well, since the results were apparent pretty early, we got to bed on time!

I did not vote for Obama, nor did my hubby.  In fact, we vehemently opposed his election because of his policies.  But, now, the fact is that he is our president and we need to pray for him and support him in whatever ways we can.  To that end, I’m trying to be very positive about the Inauguration and Mr. Obama himself.  We’ll talk about the trivial things, like his family’s trying to choose a new dog, as well as the more serious things, like what he’ll do about the war in Iraq.

I’ve become very concerned about how many Evangelicals have demonized politicians with whom they disagree.  I have read, in more than one place on the internet, all kinds of terrible and downright evil things about the incoming administration.  I want my kids to start to learn that we can disagree with someone and still be respectful.  We may think that they are leading to world to Hell in a handbasket, but if they are in authority over us, we are to be submissive (as long as submission to their authority does not contradict God’s express commands). 

This can be tough.  We spent the entire election season working to keep the Democrats out of the White House, and our kids heard our conversations and our concerns.  Now we need to stand firm on our convictions, but pray for our leaders (even if we don’t like what they stand for).  I don’t know Mr. and Mrs. Obama or Mr. and Mrs. Biden personally.  I have no reason to dislike them.  But, I don’t agree with them.  And I want my kids to learn how to respectfully disagree with others.

Check out Heart of the Matter Online to see what others said about the Inauguration and the new president!