By Kelly Carr

I’m glad we vote this week. I’m ready for the election to be over. I just feel so divided as a country when it comes to presidential election season. It’s supposed to be the honor of our choice, but most often it’s a glut of negativity—denigrating, disparaging, and slinging mud at others. I have friends with all types of views, and it gets stressful when people loudly yell their point of view in conversation—on social media especially.

As frustrated as I get, I still vote. I recognize how relatively short of a time women have had the right to vote and how voting discriminatory practices remained longer for others. I’m grateful for those who worked for my suffrage and those who served for my freedom as a citizen. It’s my civic duty to vote.

I was thinking of the term civic duty, considering what else it encompasses. Besides voting, people agree that volunteerism and keeping up with issues are also civic responsibilities. As people of faith, those are things we already think of in terms of living out the gospel, not just serving as citizens of our country. With both those motivations in mind, are we caring for all the citizens of our country? of God’s kingdom?

I watched an eye-opening news piece about people who don’t have access to water—here in the U.S. in 2016. I was dismayed by the lengths they went to in order to get daily water. I was dismayed that this was going on in my country and I had no clue. I need to become better informed and find ways to care for my fellow citizens, fellow creations of God. All of us were made in his image and need his love.

This week, no matter whose name you check on your ballot, consider the other civic duties you have—as U.S. citizens and as citizens of a heavenly kingdom—to care for those around you. Who are the overlooked around you? Reach out with God’s love.