We are just 76 days away from a new year and a new era that will be decided by voters in the mid-term elections.

There are so many new elected faces who have vowed to champion America, our state and our communities. Are you ready?

Attitude going in means everything.

We have choices to encourage or to discourage. We can roll up our sleeves and be part of the solution or we can sit back and remain part of the problem.

We have a character to test. We can push to help our elected leaders succeed or we can cross our arms and our fingers and secretly hope that they fail. Just so you will appear “righteous.” Whatever you do, though, it will affect the generation to come. The generation that’s watching.

For the common good. For the bigger picture. For the sake of all concerned. A sacrifice must be made this year. A new commitment to helping, cheering and doing.

Change comes in many forms. And it starts by looking in the mirror. It starts by teaching your children that there is “no give up” in you. No “give up” in helping to paint the bigger picture. A consensus of give and take to make things work.

How we handle adversity speaks volumes to the next generation. We are so concerned with the environment and how our grandchildren will fare 50 years from now, but what about the environment of their mind. And what about today?

Do you plant poison so that the tree that bears fruit 50 years from now is tainted, or are we planting good seeds into the hearts and minds of our children?

Sitting back and waiting for failures to happen cannot be our option in 2023. Ask yourself this question. Do you really want things to change for the better or do you just want everyone to glorify you because you predicted doom?

With your actions, you answer your own question. If you want to bring change to your elected officials in this country, this state, this community, you can be a doer. If you want to cause rebellion and strife, sit back and be a pacifist – or worse, be a naysayer.

Many people are going to be purchasing “Fitbits” for Christmas this year. It helps to mark their steps and their actions. It’s too bad they can’t purchase an additional unit for their tongues. Ultimately it’s your choice. Run your race with patience, with hope and with love, or, run your mouth.

The old adage, “many hands make light work” certainly applies as you make a new commitment this year. It is a new start for all. When you lay your head on your pillow each night, check to see how many miles you’ve walked and compare it to how many miles you’ve talked.

And the bottom line in the rant is, “let not your hearts be troubled.” You must not let the circumstances of the world make you so crazy that you forget your life. Your everyday life. Loving your family. Doing your job. Taking care of an elderly neighbor. Taking your wife out on a date night. Planning that family movie night or summer vacation. 

If circumstance can make you alter who you’ve been and what you do in your everyday life, or if it can so consume you that you change so much that even your children don’t recognize you anymore, then perhaps the price of the circumstances you are buying into are just too expensive.

John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Life is still going to happen. Learn from it. Let it teach you. Let it give you wisdom. But don’t let it change who you are on the inside.

Let’s press on – through the adversity, through the heartaches into a new place where we teach our future generations a better way. As we head to the polls Nov. 8, vote your conscience, hope for the best, brace for the worst but in either the exuberance of joy or the heartbreak of defeat, teach your children how to get through it.

If we’ve learned anything since the 2020 elections, it’s how we are coping with extreme adversity and no matter how bad it’s gotten, we always find a way through it. As Americans, let our spirit of “never giving up or giving in” be loud and proud not in only what we say, but what we do.