I try not to discuss politics too much on my posts because I feel like it’s a polarizing topic. I tend to respect other people’s opinions, or at least try to. Obviously, I don’t agree with things that are morally against my faith, like some of the things that have cropped into our social norms and culture. That said, politics has gotten so personal lately and I want to share a personal story of how this type of mindset has affected me and Steven.

We were, and still are, very good friends with a former local politician and his family. For many years while he was in office, their family would come to our home for get-togethers, such as birthdays and Bible studies. They are truly great, genuine people.

I had a couple friends that took advantage of this relationship that I had with them and befriended them through us - these women would play with their kids, take pictures with them, post their “clout” on their social media, and basically were opportunistic. What bothered me the most was that I was an unknowing catalyst for them to be able to capitalize on this relationship.

When reelection came around, they (yes, plural) publicly and privately spoke out against this friend. They certainly had a right to do whatever they wanted as they felt they had personal reasons to do so, but what blind-sided me was that they had spent the last two years using me to get to a social position that they wanted to be in and once they “thought” they got there, they used the opportunity to leverage the relationship in a negative way, by association, and actually started a smear campaign and got others involved.

Although I would never disassociate with people based on a difference of opinion, I would disassociate people that I felt were morally unethical and lacked integrity. Transparency in relationships is so important; you don’t have to agree with me, but don’t use me for self-serving purposes.

This is an example of politics have become so personal and I understand that people have strong opinions, just like I do. But trying to destroy people’s personal relationships and lives because of politics is not the way to go. The crazy thing is, they could have just reached out directly to this person, but instead they took to social media against someone they knew personally through me.

I wanted to tell the story because so much has been said about it over the last couple of years. I never really talk about it because I feel like the truth speaks for itself and the character of the people involved should speak for themselves. You should never have to defend yourself to a friend and you should never have to explain yourself either, so I don’t.

My whole point is ...be honest. If you don’t like someone or something, don’t pretend like you do to get to a place that you feel like you need to be in to justify who you are. Just be yourself, be you. Don’t make politics such a personal vendetta that you lose relationships over it. Don’t be a bottom feeder...live your life with integrity.✌🏽#PeaceAndLove 😘