Mature or Manure

I don't know about you but I'll be happy when Election Day is over. The ads have been so negative and the mudslinging misses the point of leadership. It's not about what the other person has or hasn't done. The better questions to ask a candidate are, "What are you going to do?" "What is your vision/plan?" I have heard smatterings of that in the midst of trashing/bashing, but not near enough.

Let me ask you, would you rather work for a negative person or a positive person? Joyce Landorf in her book, Balcony People, says that people are either Balcony or Basement People. Balcony People affirm, lift up, and encourage. Basement People pull down, criticize, and judge. On this All Saints' Day, I'm thinking about the Balcony People who are in the greatest balcony of all - heaven. As a matter of fact, I'm making a list so that when the Basement People and their negativity are on the prowl, I can remember who and Whose I am. The question then comes, "I wonder whose list of Balcony People I am on?"

Last week there was an awful stench around Columbia, our state's capitol city. No joke! By the end of the week it had been discovered that it was from a huge amount of chicken manure spread over a farm near the city. How appropriate! I'm ready for the smell of partisanship and its negative stench to dissipate, too. We have to work together. Yesterday I was at a Charge Conference where the devotion was given and the speaker unintentionally mixed up words. Instead of saying we should "mature in our faith," it came out "We should manure in our faith." I'm glad it was at a wonderful church and the levity was good for the meeting. Truth be told, one could say that we need to do both, grow in our faith and be good fertilizer for others.

With politics I'm looking for maturity. Unfortunately, with the mid-term elections and all the local races, things have been smelling more like manure than maturity. Good leadership is more mature than manure. Hope you have a good All Saints' Day and that you avoid all manure-spreaders!