Marriage and politics. Weird combo right? What do the two have to do with each other? Well- relationships.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned thus far in marriage it’s this: whenever I believe my opinion to be right and my husband to be wrong it never turns out well for us. I hold no grace, no understanding, no compassion and no empathy for him. I may utter words like “you’re crazy if you think that” and want to cancel him in that moment and pretty much “unfriend him.”
Well if you reread the above paragraph and replace the words “my husband” with a person of opposite political beliefs, I find myself in the exact same situation. We are no longer united and our relationship suffers a blow which can sometimes lead to no relationship at all.
Relationships are sacred you guys. The good news is, and there is good news, that when I change my mind from being right, to trying to understand, my marriage takes a huge leap forward and grows deeper in love and intimacy. And this is where it’s at with politics too.
As crazy as I think my husband is sometimes in the trenches of an argument, I soon realize that when I switch my mindset to try to understand him, he doesn’t seem so crazy anymore. I almost always get to a place where I can see where he is coming from even if I don’t agree 100% and then we move forward in some kind of compromise. We can do that too!
This is no different than what we are facing today. It’s hard. It takes work. But isn’t it worth it? I hate turning on the TV and seeing people kill each other over their differences. I hate opening my social media and seeing people who were friends become enemies.
This work is important work. But we must all do our part. I don’t know exactly where this country is headed but right now it’s hard to see the light. But I have no doubt that if the people come together and do the work, we can be the change we want to see in the world.
I want to understand you and I want you to understand me even if we don’t agree. I want to get to a place where love and peace reigns in our hearts again. God loves us both and political opinion will never change that.
