OUR Governor, the next Vice President??

Though I (Jess) am generally the primary 'blogger' on here, my very wonderful husband, Charley, is the author of most of the following. We put our heads & 'pens' together in hopes to shed a little light on Sarah and Todd Palin, and share with you how we feel about her, their family, her administration as our Governor, and our thoughts on McCain's recent choice of her for the Republican VP. We would appreciate your feed-back, and welcome any further questions you may have about her. Also, for those of you who have a problem with Palin running for office due to the fact that she's a woman, married with children, I would strongly encourage you to check out the recent post at "Amy's Humble Musings". It's both thought provoking and biblically correct.
________________________________________________________________

So, who IS this “Palin” anyway?

From the 'Mr.' Preston

I’ll admit: I was shocked as anyone when I saw the news last Friday morning. McCain picks our governor for VP?

I think only a local can fully understand how we view the Palin family. They are the epitome of the ultimate, yet normal, Alaskan family: Commercial fishermen, Todd works as an operator on the north slope, he’s a pilot – they have a plane and all the typical Alaska toys. Todd has a native family background and Sarah was simply the daughter of a school teacher; normal, everyday as it gets. You’ve seen the news – hunting, fishing, snowmobiling – it’s no act – it’s what we do. They’re just living another day in paradise. They commercial fish together as a family (Alaska’s version of family farming or ranching). They live off the land… Good ol’ hometown heroes.

So Sarah wasn’t setting out to prove anything when she ran for city council, she just wanted to get some things done she didn’t see anyone else doing. Anyone can run for city council of a dinky town. Then mayor is a little more impressive – but even we locals were surprised to see her win the governor’s seat. However, it was just what the doc ordered to not have any insider ties to our state capital. See, one thing we know sure as anything is that Sarah doesn’t sit around and wait for someone else to fix something – she addresses the issue. No victim mentality here!!

Please ask if you have any specific questions, but I’m not going to repeat most of the details you’ve already heard about her accomplishments – which have been reasonably accurate, only shared with one “tone” or another. I've only personally talked to Todd and Sarah once, but to the best of our knowledge, they are followers of Christ. If you *haven't* yet read a satisfactory explanation of what Sarah has been able to accomplish while in office here, I'd encourage you to take a look at the following links... hopefully you will be as impressed as we have been.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=193
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/bio.html

Todd, Sarah and their family are members of the church Jess used to attend when she lived out in Wasilla with her Dad, before we got married. Obviously, they can't be there as often as they'd like, having recently moved to Juneau (our state capitol), but when she is at her Wasilla home - located on the same lake where Jess and Jen's Dad lives- they are lovingly greeted when visiting their church home, WBC. Only God can know their hearts, but from the 'outside', they sure appear to be ambassadors for Christ (despite their family 'ups and downs').

Here are some things that come to mind, and understand these are merely the views of this li’l Preston family. McCain’s pick of Sarah does not in any way change my choice of voting for McCain. ANY VOTE NOT CAST, OR CAST TO ANYONE BUT JOHN MCCAIN, IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA. While neither McCain nor Palin are perfect, eloquent, godly, experienced, role model leaders, what is the result of the other guy? I’m the first person to vote for who, from my research, is the best leader (no compromises) in the primaries. But in the general election, we must use wisdom as to the effect our “stand” for our convictions may have. Remember, God doesn’t allow anyone into government that He hasn’t placed there, and He can even use ungodly leaders for His glory. But we’re amiss to sit aside and take for granted our freedom to affect the leadership of this country on the grounds of protest.

While scripture makes it clear that the place where married women (with children) are most blessed is in the home, there are many cases in where women take a leadership role in work, government, and ministry in the Bible. Either way, what is gained in analyzing whether this is appropriate or not? Us complaining about that it is not going to suddenly make them change their paradigm. Even as governor, I didn’t think it was right for her little guy Trig, OR her constituents to have to share Sarah. But what options are there?? Are she and her husband not to consummate their wonderful example of a successful marriage in today’s culture of poor examples?? Birth control at 44?? Ignore her responsibilities as governor??

What Sarah DOES bring to the table is a record, albeit a short one, of a SOLID pro-life stance, cutting spending, and addressing corruption. But Sarah is honestly no different than most of you, and desperately needs our prayers, especially if voted in. In the case that she were voted in, I would have confidence in her performance. While a vote for someone is showing your trust in them, you should never refuse to vote on the potential premise of betrayal. Every sinful human has the potential to screw up, and all we can go off of is a person’s record and what they say they will do.

Sarah’s shortcomings are certainly her limited experience, but you have start somewhere, right?? And she certainly has MUCH more executive experience than Obama, which as been stated. Also, like many could struggle with, the largest local taint appears to be her possible misuse of power for a personal reason, even if it was justified. But while this issue is frustrating, overall I find it reasonably minor with the current evidence at hand.

I can understand the democrats jumping all over the negative details of Sarah, but what I don’t understand are the Christian conservatives who prefer Alan Keyes over Palin. While I’ve met Alan Keyes here in Alaska, and he’s a good man with an excellent platform, I don’t believe he is a good family man or ambassador for Christ. His speech is hardly ever seasoned with salt – he has a very “bull in the china closet” arrogance about stances. Also, people are understandably disappointed about Sarah’s daughter, but Alan’s daughter is a lesbian – which would you prefer??

Bottom line? Sarah’s not perfect, but she’s all we’ve got to work with at this stage. And unless we have some unity, we’re going to be hurting a lot worse. Please pray for our leaders, and pray for wisdom, and vote how the Lord leads you.