Volume 2 • Issue 3 | Fall 2018 | Your Guide to Voting

MY VOTE MATTERS

America is a miracle. The first and only constitutional republic in the world, the only nation to have just one government, the only country that has not been torn apart by rebellion and insurrection.

The nation that stands as an example to the world, a city on a hill. But this miracle cannot last long on its own. It must be guarded with vigilance, lest it be stolen by tyrants or it slips through our fingers when we are not looking.

This miracle relies on the American people. If they fall, it falls as well. When they rise to protect it, it is strengthened. We Americans owe our vote to our nation. We owe our vote to God, to history, and to posterity.

My vote matters because God has blessed us with the American nation, with a land that upholds the values we hold dear, with the freedoms that are birthed deep within us, with a land that is considered a miracle, never before seen on the earth and never to be seen again. What shall we do with these blessings? Toss them away?

My vote matters because two hundred years ago, a group of men with Judeo-Christian values came together and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to fight for freedom (Declaration of Independence).

This fight was dearly paid for with the blood of our soldiers struggling on the battlefield, the sweat of the Founding Fathers gathering in Independence Hall in summer’s sweltering heat, and the tears of many a mother, a wife, a sister, who said goodbye to their loved ones as they slipped from one world into the next.

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”Ronald Reagan

My vote matters because of their sacrifice. The freedoms that two centuries of history have known, the freedoms that I have had the amazing privilege to experience, could vanish in a heartbeat. As Ronald Reagan said, “We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.”

Why are the American people apathetically standing by, watching the nation which the Founders devoted their lives to establishing fall to pieces?

My vote matters for my children and my children’s children.

My vote matters because “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” (Ronald Reagan) We cannot be selfish with our liberties. What good is it, if our generation is free, but our children grow up in slavery? I implore you, Americans, the same way Matthias Burnet, Pastor of the First Church in Norwalk, implored his congregation in his election sermon:

“Finally, ye Freemen, all of every class whose high prerogative it is, to raise up, or pull down, to invest with office and authority, or to withhold them, and in whose power it is to save or destroy your country, consider well the important trust and distinguishing privileges which God and nature have put into your hands. To God and posterity, you are accountable for them… Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights,”

My vote matters for the generations to come. I fight not only for my freedom but for the freedom of a future America.

Sadly, millions of Americans living in this great nation today have not yet realized that their vote matters. But I see a glimmer of hope because you are all sitting here, listening to me. You are realizing that your vote matters. And that brings me hope for the future. 

Our vote matters, for God, for our history, and for posterity. To quote Ronald Reagan, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

About the article: When Kristen, a high school sophomore, emailed My Faith Votes an essay she recently penned about voting, in America, members of our Care Team were so inspired by her words that they shared it with the entire organization. With Kristin's permission, we wanted to share it with every American voter.