As we approach the Primary Election May 17th, I have been pondering these verses a lot:
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn-bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Matthew 7:15-20
Who do we believe? Who do we trust? All candidates use the same language in our speeches, commercial messaging and printed materials. The answer is not always immediately obvious, but it is always in found our actions.
I wish there was an easier way for all of you to know who are truly the conservatives running for office. Who is the candidate that will “Defend our Values?” Who believes in protecting our state sovereignty and God-given individual rights? Will they represent and be available to me as a constituent? Who do I trust with my personal individual freedoms and liberties? My childrens’ future? The list of questions goes on and on.
The best way to know these things is to build relationships. Building relationships builds trust. With only a few weeks left, it will be difficult to really know much about each other, but we can begin by laying down the foundation; taking that first step. That first step for me was making myself available to all 53,121 constituents in district 24 by giving out my personal number. I only have one phone, I was advised to get a separate number for my political journey because people will abuse it. I chose not to do so because it would be easy to avoid phone calls knowing it was my political phone, and trust has to start somewhere. I will take that first leap of faith. If I am of the people, by the people, for the people, that makes you my people and my people get my phone number.
Honesty is the next step to building trust. I am asked many questions about many topics; from water, to education, windmills, medical freedom, public land access, taxes, budgets – the list goes on and on. I counted the bill topics in the last session, there were over 360 different subjects. If your candidate says they know everything about all of those subjects they are not being honest with you. That is why we build relationships and why we call this a representative form of government. I need to know you and trust you, I need to know what your area of expertise and boots on the ground experience is. When a bill comes up that you are expert in, I want to be comfortable reaching out to you to get advice and council, trusting you will not advise me to do something that breaks my oath. I want to trust that you will not selfishly use our relationship for your personal gain, but rather to help me protect all of the individual rights given to us by God and guaranteed to us in the constitution.
Next is humility – something sorely missing in those we’ve sent to Boise. They think they are untouchable because they can make law. They pride themselves that they know better than those of us who sent them there. We citizens have not been given power, but rather responsibility. That is where humility comes in – we must never think of ourselves as higher than our constituents because you have elected us to represent (not lord over) you. Pride is destructive, and always comes before the fall, we must work hard to keep ourselves humble.
I will finish up with a question I get a lot. “Why in the world would you want to take on such a difficult, thankless, painful job”? Because of LOVE! I love God, my country and mankind. We have been given freedoms and liberties that only exist in America today and they must be defended and fought for if we are to keep them. Luke 12:48 says,
“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
This verse talks about our salvation and the freedoms that come with it. It could also apply to the freedoms we have been given to us by the blood and sacrifice of our founding fathers. We must not be naive or deceived: it will take just as much sacrifice and pain to keep what we were given as it did to establish it. To whom much is given, much is required. Defending and fighting to keep what has been given to us is not for the weak or lazy.
I ask that you will all stand, hold the line and fight with me. Do not send me to the front lines alone!
In Liberty,
Glenneda