Make a difference

While flipping through a magazine, I saw an ad for a new kind of Under Armour article. It’s a special material for cold weather training and showed a football player alone on a frozen field, practicing. It made me think about professional athletes and while I’ve always assumed they’re pros because of their skill, I now wonder if it isn’t their sheer determination that gets them to the top of their game, and how much “skill” is wasted on people who give up too early.

Which leads me to the conclusion there are three kinds of people:
1. Those who know they'll never get ahead, and don’t bother to try.
2. Those who know the quest for a better life is better left to others, content to work every day to provide for their families, and do their civic duty of church and military.
3. Those who are unsatisfied with life and know they can make it better, and succeed through sheer determination, unwilling to fail.

What binds these three is their unwavering commitment that they know they're right. And they are. If you take someone with the third mindset and plop him in the first environment, the outcome will remain the same – no matter how you mix and match the three.

It's what makes America great. You can be whatever you want to be. You can climb as far as you're willing to go. But you are the only one who will drive you.

As we sit on the brink of a new president I have listened to the arguments of both sides. One rallies for the capitalism America was founded on....the other for a socialism they defend 'I am my brother's keeper.'

No matter to which side you fall, selfish motives drive both. One is motivated by pride and the need to be seen as a savior, the other is driven by greed and the need to ‘die with the most toys,’ rich and envied.

If we truly were trying to be our brother's keeper, charitable contributions would be at an all time high, poverty wouldn't exist and families would live in 'villages,' taking care of the elderly and young with pure hearts and no thought to materialistic goods.

I will be the first to admit I have never woken up with a pure heart or devoid of my materialistic thoughts. I would love to, don’t get me wrong, in fact, I have the most fantastic ideas and motivation, but I never follow through. There's an organization I read about called ‘Care,’ who helps women in other countries get loans so they can truly assist their families. There's the soup kitchen in my town. There's the homeless man I pass every day on my way to work. There's always tomorrow, I say. But what happened to yesterday's tomorrow?

So now we stand on the brink of the most important election in our nation’s history. My biggest concern, and one I continue to hear from people, is that they are voting for a man who will take care of the masses. With a flick of a magic wand all our problems will go away, the poor will eat, the blind will see, the unemployed will work again…

When you step in to that voting booth on Tuesday, don’t you dare think the poor and impoverished are taken care of for you now and you're absolved of your duty. It's not the government's job to 'take care of' our sick, our elderly, our poor.

It's our job.
Mine and yours.

I want to have a voice where my money goes and to which cause I support. It should not be mandatory. Jesus said we are to give with a happy heart, not be taxed to death so someone else can decide to spend our money happily…which cause is more important than another. We all have our own “hot button.” Mine is not yours, and yours is not mine. We have choices to give of our time and resources to causes we believe in – and to let some one else work on the ones they believe in. I promise you the government’s “hot button” is also not yours…or mine. Choose to support your own cause, but you’d better act fast, because Wednesday morning, you may not have a choice anymore.

I'm not telling you how to vote, just to be educated, and not by the media. Decide for yourself what you want America to be.

.....and on Wednesday, decide how you're going to make a difference and get out there and do it!

EMPOWER YOU, EMPOWER ME!
(EMPOWER AMERICA!)