This week is Election Week. Yesterday was Election Day. Did you vote? It seems like everyone was voting early this year, did you notice that too? It may not always seem like it, but being able to vote in this country is a privilege. Sometimes it can be easy to take it for granted, especially for those of us who were born and raised in the States, but we are incredibly blessed to get to have a say in how we want our country, state, county, and even our own city to be run, even if the people we vote for do not always win. 

Despite taking the privilege of voting for granted, though, we can be so quick to judge or even go as far as to hate people who vote differently than we do. How sad is that? We generally make friends without knowing where they stand politically, but then as soon as we find out that they have different political views, our perspectives on who they are as people changes. This has happened for me. I have a friend from childhood who I do not spend time with anymore, but still follow on Instagram. In the past few years, she has posted about some politically controversial topics and it shocked me to learn that her political views are as extremely opposite from mine as they can be. Does that mean that I cut her out of my life though? Of course not! Even though we never see each other anymore, I still like her as a person and she was always one of my sweetest friends growing up. This new knowledge does not change who she is, it just changed my perspective on her values and taught me more about who she is.  

There is no rule that says we are not allowed to be friends with people who disagree with us politically so why do we so often act like there is? Do we just want to avoid disagreement? Does knowing that we have different values really affect the quality of our friendships enough to not want to work through and really understand our differences? Do we act the same way when we find out that our friend follows a different religion or likes a different sports team? Well, maybe you do with the sports team, but that is also not something we should lose friends over. 

They say the two topics of conversation to avoid at the dinner table are religion and politics. Why? Because they usually end up in arguments and potentially shouting matches. In reality, those conversations can actually be really helpful because they can help you understand other perspectives and why people believe what they believe. As long as everyone is respectful and willing to listen to the other side instead of trying to explain why they are right and the other view is wrong, it can be a very educational time for everyone involved. 

I have a memory from many years ago visiting a family member when he was talking about what he believed. He was a Mormon and had very different beliefs than my immediate family. It was an interesting conversation and it was very fascinating to learn more about him and how he lived his life based on the values and standards he held himself to. I was a young child at this point and was not an active part of the conversation, but I appreciate the respect and desire for understanding that I remember observing between him and my other family members. There was room for honesty and different views without raised voices or interruptions trying to explain why something is wrong or right. 

What if we did that more often when talking about religion or politics with other people? What if we actually listened to learn more about other views and why people have those views instead of judging them when we find out that they see things differently than us? Imagine how much closer we could become with our friends and family who do not agree with us if we actually listened to what they had to say and had the opportunity to say what we wanted to say. 

I know that even Elizabeth, Katelyn, and I have different political views and opposing views on some of the political hot topics. If we let that be the deciding factor in our friendship, there would be no friendship to speak of and this blog would be nonexistent. And on top of that, we have some pretty big theological differences as well. Even though we do not follow different religions, theological differences can still cause divisions in families and friendships. How sad would it be if we let religion/theology and politics determine who we are and are not friends with? That would really limit our options. I hope we can all learn to have healthy and respectful conversations whenever politics comes up and we can truly strive to understand where other people are coming from and why they think what they think. 

Abbi