So, as everyone and their mother knows, it is an election year. Bernie Sanders, Michael Rubio, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and many others have become household names to all of us here in the United States over the last year and a half. However, now that the primaries are over and the official candidates have been selected, I find myself in a peculiar predicament. I do not want to vote!

Let me explain why this is significant — especially to the other millennials out there. I am appealing to you as well.

I do not know whether you have voted in any election yet. Maybe you have because you are interested in politics and wanted to vote as soon as possible after turning 18. You did all of your research — or not. You chose who you thought was the best to be in Congress or running your town, and voted on the appropriate day. If you did, good for you. You are more politically-minded than I ever care to be. For myself, however, I have not yet exercised my right to vote. I am two years past eighteen because I wanted to wait until I could vote in the actual election. If I had been in town for the primaries, I would have voted then. But I was away at school so, as you can tell, things have just gotten away from me.

The point is this: Now that I have the right to vote, the ability to do research and mindfully choose my ideal candidate, I do not want to. I am caught, as we were with the Romney and President Obama's election, between a rock and a hard place. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump seems to be the best leader for our country in the coming years. With the Obama administration coming to a close, I am at a loss as to where our country is headed.

We have ISIS and these terror attacks which are both frightening and distracting from issues within our own country. The refugees are coming in, and there are the gaping issues within our own immigration system. The education system is descending further into chaos with Common Core and disgruntled teachers who are fed up with the new system and the disrespect shown them by their students. Unemployment is a constant issue, and no one can decide what to do about taxes and welfare programs because Washington cannot seem to keep it together and be more bipartisan than the arrogant, selfish and power-hungry individuals they are showing themselves to be. Notice! I said all of Washington — not Congress or the President. They are in this together, folks. Even without all of these issues, there is the threat that Russia and/or China could take us over at any time with our weakened military and the crushing amount of debt that has been doubling and tripling itself since I was in diapers. Needless to say, we have been in trouble for a while.

I am not a politician. I took a government class in high school and hate watching the news because I believe that it lies to me. I am just like the rest of you. I’m one of the “uninformed idiots” who is supposed to vote and let Washington handle all the big decisions. As you have read though, I am not so ill-informed as they expect me or anyone else to be. Because of my personal views, I am not sure that Donald Trump with his two-faced, arrogant persona or Hillary Clinton with her lies, scandals and extremely Democratic views of laying down and letting threats walk all over her are either fit to raise our country to a better standing in this world. Though, I do reserve a cordial respect for them both as they are both here for some purpose which God has not enlightened me to.

Millennials, you may not agree with me. You may not be as informed as I am or you may be more accurately informed. You may not care at all. What I am saying is that you should care. You should care that neither candidate is fit to lead our nation. You should care that your children, if you ever get married and have them, will have to live in a world where there might not be a United States of America anymore -- that is where we are headed. We are headed to a time where religious persecution of Christians may become more violent in the United States if we are taken over. We are headed to a time where nothing is certain and everything is up for others to take from us. We can want the best for ourselves, our families and our nation all day, but if we do nothing then we are no better than the politicians who have shut down our government several times in the last four years because they cannot come to any agreement.

We need another Abraham Lincoln. We need another Ronald Reagan. Were these men perfect? No! They were respected for their leadership and feared for their power and diplomatic excellence. Lincoln was shot for heaven’s sake. The problem that we now face as voters is that we have neither of these men nor anyone remotely like them in the race.

I don’t know who to vote for. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for because that is your choice. I will ask: Do we have to vote? Do we have any other option than these two blundering, pandering individuals who are as different as night and day? Well, there are the independent candidates. As for me, I’m going to be looking some of them up and seeing if they have any views that I, myself, as an independent with strong conservative views can align with. I highly doubt that there will be anyone though.

People! We are already at a time when nothing is certain and no leadership is right for America. As a Christian, I believe that whoever God wants for the presidency will be elected. Although, I will respect His judgment and do believe in it, I do not believe that I will like His decision when He makes it. I’m sure others feel as despondent and confused as I do as we approach the first time we are able to vote in a presidential election. I’m praying. I hope you do as well, but if you do not believe in that — keep yourself informed at least. Do not let the dragons of our world catch you unaware and fight for what is best for yourself, your family and your country. God help and bless America. May these verses offer hope.

Jeremiah 29:10-14

“This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. [fn] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.””

All verses from blueletterbible.com New International Version