FJM Blog

By Ceasar I. LeFlore III

 

Thanksgiving dinner with my family this year was both humbling and bitter sweet. 

 

Of course it’s always a blessing when a family as large as mine (7 brothers and sisters and their families) can come together and celebrate the faithfulness of God and to thank Him for the abundant blessing we have as citizens living in a free country.  It’s humbling when I consider how good God has been to us; and this year my family seemed to be more happy and hopeful than I have ever seen them.  How sweet it was to see everyone so excited, exchanging hugs and stories, and eating more food than should be allowed. 

 

But Thanksgiving dinner was also bitter sweet because of what appeared to be the main reason for much of their joy this year.  The election of Barack Obama as President of The United States was huge, as could be expected, for a large, black, democratic family like mine.  Oh my God, they were crazy out of their mind happy, and hopeful; validated in their relentless trashing of Bush and McCain, and holding extremely high expectations as to how wonderful things are going to be for “the little man” now that Barack Obama is in charge.  

 

At one point my older brother, Preston, took control of the table conversation to make an inspirational and prophetic declaration of just how great 8 years of Obama (re-election unquestioned) will be for the nation.  With no real Obama track record to reflect on to substantiate his proclamation of coming greatness to the White House, prophet Preston had to remind us all of the joyous days of Bill Clinton and then contrast them to the dark days of Bush as the central thesis of his inspirational talk.  Perhaps that’s why he looked at me so strangely when I suggested that “his cabinet member selections seems to indicate that even  Obama himself is nostalgic for the Clinton era and is intent on giving brother Bill a third term.  Why didn’t we just elect Hillary and cut out the middle man?”  (What a waste of good cranberry sauce in throwing it at me.)

 

As the only conservative member of my family, I was the object of extra ridicule at the table this year.  Age and maturity has not affected my sibling’s ability to stick out their tongues and go na, na, na, na, na when they get the upper hand in a contest.  In the old days I could complain to mom and demand that she “make them stop”.  How disappointing it was to see her acting like a child right along with them.  (By the way mom, the turkey was dry.)

 

Well, I had to endure it.  They are my family and I’m happy to see them happy.  They have so much hope that things are going to get better with Barack, and I don’t want to see them disappointed and heart broken by what I fear has been a campaign designed to simply inspire hope in hope; masterminded by an iconic figure of dubious pedigree and suspect ideology.

 

I started praying, “Lord, I hope they’re right.  I pray that these next years will be wonderful for our nation, and especially for my family.  I do pray that Obama will have a wonderful tenure as our nation’s chief executive, and that prosperity and peace will spread across this nation in waves of abundant blessings. 

Preston, to his credit, did contend during his Thanksgiving speech that “God was going to give Obama every tool that he is going to need” in order to fix the mess that he believes this country has become.

 

Well, God has already given that to all of us.  The Bible says that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”  I’m praying that Obama will give ear to those in this nation who fervently believe that ours should not be a simple hope in hope; but that our hope is in God, the foundation upon which this great nation was built. 

 

I’m praying that he does not attempt to turn this nation in a direction that dishonors God and his divine principles concerning how we should work and live.  That we don’t become even more dependant on government and lose our dependence on God; which in turn will cause us to lose our much cherished liberty and freedom. 

 

I’m praying that he will strike the right tones in his messages to our nation as he did when he called for more personal responsibility in his Father’s Day speech at last year, and that he will lead by example by not attempting to become our all in all by increasing the size of government through entitlement programs that takes control away from the people.

 

If my prayers are answered, then next Thanksgiving should be something really special, for all of us.

 

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