Hello everyone! Today I want to talk about a disturbing pattern in our country. I noticed this pattern before the election. I continue to see it even now. I will speak plainly here. We are all in a dither in this country, just as my blog title says. Let me define the word “dither” before moving forward. Merriam-Webster defines the word dither as: a highly nervous, excited, or agitated state, a state of confusion. We are so bothered (dithered, agitated) by every little thing that might seem like it wants to “take our rights away” (even if it does not) that we are ignoring real issues. Two issues that stand out to me are gun safety and immigration reform. We are ignoring safety issues where weapons are concerned, for both adults and children. We are ignoring human compassion for real people, like you and me, that are on our borders. We are ignoring our Biblical mandates to care for the alien and to use Godly wisdom, not political wisdom, to settle our disputes and solve our issues. We let the twittering of our political leaders on social media matter more than people. Our political philosophies have reached god-like status, even elevated above God in the Christian church at times. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are all in a dither!
I wrote our president about such things in a letter I sent to him last week. I wrote to him the words Jesus wanted me to say to him. They were kind, they were truth and they were direct yet respectful. My hope is that he will read my letter, hear God’s heart, and be the first person to stop the dithering – first with himself and then with the nation. A nation looks to its leaders, regardless of whether we want to admit it or not, for character. I hope he will take my letter to Congress and read it as well. They could all stand to stop the dithering.
We live in an interesting emotional age in this country. Emotion has been elevated above truth and facts in many instances. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. Our emotions are there to help us enjoy life and help us know when something is wrong. God made emotion. He has emotions. What he does not do is use His emotion to determine truth or fact. He uses truth as truth and fact as fact. We have forgotten how to do this both in the church and in politics. This contributes to the dithering we see in this country. We are all in our emotions and we aren’t considering facts or truth, I don’t care what the issue is or our political or religious affiliation. I’ve made decisions about people and things in my emotion in the moment. That never really worked out well for me or them. Why do we think it’s going to work out for our country or our soul if we do the same?
I know this writing may not be popular. I’m going to be honest and say, I don’t care. I do care about people. I do care about hurting people. I do care about our nation, all the people in our nation, not the select few. Our leaders, our president and we as a people have got to get out of our emotions and stop the dithering! We have got to talk to one another and listen to real concerns! We have got to stop passing arrogant judgments before we hear people out! I am not asking us to do anything I am not doing. I am also asking us not to do some of the judging I have done in the past. The dithering state we are in in this nation will not work for us long term! It will only keep us divided and our leaders at each other’s throats! I see bad decisions on the horizon if this continues, very bad decisions. Take responsibility for yourself and your emotions. It starts with each one of us. Let’s hold our leaders responsible for doing the same! Write them letters and call their offices. If you want respect, be respectful. If you want compassion, be compassionate. If you want to be heard, listen! If you want someone to be kind to you, show kindness. When it’s time to speak, speak. When it’s time to be quiet, be quiet. When it’s time to apologize for words or actions poorly said or done, apologize!
Do your part to stop the dithering and our leaders will follow suit! If we remain in this state of confusion for too long, I fear for our future and who may come to power in that future. Confusion attracts evil. Confusion attracts oppressors who will beckon us with sweet words to calm our fears and then spring their traps. Our dithering will not serve us well America.
For my part, I will continue to pray, speak up, and not allow evil to gain a foothold here. I hope you will join me!
Dither no more America! Love, Elizabeth