Prayer first

My first instinct when I see something I don't like it is to ignore it.

Some people want to jump in and fight. Some people want to argue and debate a point to make sure that everyone agrees with them. Some people cry. Some people watch in disbelief.

I walk away. I flip the channel. I X out of the browser.

It hurts too much to see people hating police. It's too hard to see gender roles blurred beyond belief. It's too scary to see people standing up for a place that kills babies and sells parts of their bodies. So I don't watch; I don't listen; I just go about my happy little life.

Part of it is also that I know that I'm not a good debater, and even if I end up fighting for my point, I'm not going to get anywhere. I'll probably just make the other person mad and realize an hour later I should have said this or I should not have said this. It's easier for me to just not add to the conversation and to seclude myself in my perfect part of the world.

The other night, a friend started to cry about an issue that I didn't know how to fix. I rubbed her back and said "I'm sorry." I tried to be the positive one and point out things that would make her feel better.

When she walked away, I realized what I should have done. I should have immediately taken her hand and prayed with her. It wasn't a good moment anymore to pray with her, but I started to pray myself.

And that's when I realized --- how often do I feel lost about a problem and just ignore it or try to be positive when I should really be doing is praying. We have the most powerful being to talk to about all our issues, and we so often overlook it. Why isn't praying the first thing we do?

I mean, think about it. President Obama is probably the most powerful man on earth, the U.S. president usually is. If we could bring all our issues to President Obama and feel like we could really make a difference through the conversation with him, we would take everything to him. We would ask him to fix all our problems, especially if we knew that we were on the side of truth and he agreed with us. He could do so much more than I could, so I would ask him to do it instead of trying to take it on myself.

But what I really have is someone so much more powerful than the president of the United States. And I know what is breaking my heart is also breaking God's heart. I know that he hates seeing where this country and this world is going. I know he doesn't want it to go there, because so much that is happening in popular culture is wrong.

So instead of avoiding the issues, when I see something that hurts I need to take it to God. Lord, please protect our police officers and help parents teach their children to respect authority. Please help us see that the gender issues in our country are not what you intended when you created man and woman. Please help us to defund Planned Parenthood so that innocent lives are not taken. Please work in the lives of our leaders and help them to stand strong for what's right, even if it doesn't look "good" on their political resumes. Please just cover this country in your grace, and help us all to stand up for what we know is right, wherever that leads us.

Please, Lord, don't give up on us.