Last week I came perilously close to cursing at a friend of my great-aunt’s--a woman in her seventies who has known me all of my life and for whom I sometimes run errands. (Both ladies had enough marbles and enough humility to give up their driver’s licenses when the time came to do so; therefore I am often the driver.) I’ll call her Mrs. Sampson
Anyway the slip almost happened when Mrs. Sampson said that her church was praying for President Obama. Now before you folks who are prone to jumping to conclusions make that leap, know that I pray for him also. I pray that he is called to repent of his sins and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ—the real one rather than the abomination--as his savior and that his decisions are guided by the Holy Spirit. I presume that Mrs. Sampson and her church’s other congregants pray the same thing since Christians are exhorted to pray for their leaders.
However, Mrs. Sampson’s actual words regarding the reason her church was praying for the president got to me. “Oh they’re criticizing him so. It’s just horrible!”
I didn’t say what I was thinking, but those thoughts did contain the f-bomb.
After biting my tongue—almost literally—I pointed out that if he didn’t want to get criticized that he should not have run for president. She agreed, then pointed out that Jesus had been criticized(!)
I quickly asserted that, contrary to some opinions, he was not Jesus, and then took the conversation to the place that had initiated my anger.
“President Obama is the Commander-in Chief of the Armed Forces. There are many young men--teenagers some of them--who are sleeping on the ground, who haven’t had showers for weeks and they are doing so under his orders. Many of these men have seen their friends blown to bits and some may have that happen to them or may come home minus a body part. If they can put up with that, don’t you think that their Commander-in Chief can put up with a little criticism?”
“You’re right, he can.”
“Is your church praying for any of them?”
Why are all of these people treating the putative Leader of the Free World as if he’s a puling infant? Oh wait. He is.
