Does your vote count?

Did your vote count? Though the final results are likely a few days away, the preliminary numbers show that Bush defeated Kerry by nearly 1.7 million votes in Texas. No matter which way you voted, would it have made any difference had you decided simply to stay home?

Turnout was up this year. In some places voters waited in line for hours to be able to vote. Over seven million Texans voted in this election. Looking back, it is easy to wonder what difference one vote could make.

Everyone I spoke with yesterday I asked, “have you voted yet?” Most had, but one friend told me she was going to vote after she picked up her son from school. She wanted to take him with her, so he could experience the political process.

Her vote mattered, if not by deciding which candidate would win, by showing her son that it is important, as an American citizen, to vote. It is too easy to decide that an individual vote didn’t make a difference, but the fact that one did vote does make a difference.

Many times how we behave is more important than the outcome of our behavior. After all, we very often cannot control the outcome. We certainly cannot determine how others will respond. All we can control is how we behave. Our own actions are up to us.

Some Christians are easily overwhelmed by the giftedness of others. Some drag along spiritually for years, thinking God doesn’t really have plan for their lives.

God does have a great plan for your life! Even if you can’t see results right now, God is working. Even if the outcome seems so far away, God is working. Remember: all we are responsible for is how we act today. Live like God loves you, because He does!