“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57

Over the course of the campaign we learned a lot together. One of those being that the only way we would come through this campaign together, win or lose, is if we did it, together! That sounds simple but a part of campaigning most don’t realize is that there is a lot of time spent apart. My dedicated husband went door to door in our district just about every day. He did this after working all day too. This means he was home later than normal and I was on my own at home a bit longer. As odd as it sounds this time apart meant we were in this together. We were both doing what we could do so that we were obedient to God. We were both putting God first instead of ourselves.  Two other things we learned were that keeping God first and praying together every night really does make all the difference.

It is not as simple as it sounds. There were times where it would have been easier to just throw in the towel. But that was not what God called us to do. He called us to run the race. In the beginning we were focused on winning…on the victory! As we campaigned and continued to seek God it became clear to us that it was about so much more than this race. God was working on our hearts. He was working on bringing our hearts closer together as a couple and also making our hearts more compassionate to those who might need a touch from Jesus.

When we would lose focus God would tug at our hearts and patiently redirect us. It became clear to us that when we shifted our focus from God to anything else, even each other, life became chaotic and things just didn’t flow well. Through this process we learned to recognize those moments and step back and ask ourselves “where is our focus?” Keeping God first made all the difference. Praying together every night helped us keep our focus on Him. We started praying for the other candidates in our race and God really showed us that it was not about this race as much as it was about the eternal race.

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6

We started praying together every night several years ago. It has proven to be one of the best decisions we have ever made. Every night, no matter what has happened that day, we reconnect and put God first, together. It is not always easy and one of us is usually tired but we do it because we know it is important. When we pray, our almost 2 year old daughter, will put her hand on top of our hands to pray. It is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Even at that young age she knows there is something special going on and I believe she can feel God’s presence and wants to be apart of that moment with us. Showing her that prayer is a priority is important to us. I have seen a quote before saying “When every thing else fails, pray.” That is backwards to me. Prayer works and it should be our first response not a last resort. Praying together every night keeps us close on a spiritual level like nothing else could. It keeps us honest with God, each other, and ourselves.

By the end of the campaign we knew that no matter what we had done all that we could do. We had been obedient to God and that either way we had the only victory that really mattered. We had victory in Christ. We had triumphed over every scheme of the enemy to cause division in our marriage and household during the campaign. God gave us the victory over every area we surrendered to Him. We also won the election. 🙂