Prayer for Mitt Romney

Mitt, I don't often put my prayers on paper, but maybe if I do it will make this prayer for you a little more real. Maybe it will make it reach the heavens, God, or the universe. Sometimes in the past you've cowered, and flip-flopped just a bit. Somehow I knew the real Mitt would shine through when the going gets tough, the tough get going, or so they say. My prayer for you is that in reaching inward and finding your voice, your courage, your faith, you'll be shielded from condemnation, or vile revenge and stinging accusations from your own party and president. I pray that you'll be able to withstand the punishment that is raining hatred on you like the proverbial cats and dogs we've often heard about. May the cats and dogs turn into purring kittens and licking puppies. May you rise above your detractors and feel strength throughout every fiber of your being.

Those of us who share or who have shared your Faith know well the words, "do what is right, let the consequence follow." We've sung those words many a Sunday and hoped that we too could always do what is right. Doing right is kind of vague though and changes with person and circumstances. And so finding out what is right for you had to have been as difficult, the most difficult decision you've ever made, just as you said. As the hymn goes "finding strength beyond your own." May the consequences be a surprise of love and outpouring of support from all the corners of the world. May God, your faith, the universe help your lovely wife and family feel pride in your action and not be shamed by him who tweets and send short missives of revenge and curse upon you. May you find your armor strong and able to withstand all the fiery darts coming your way.

I pray for those on all sides of the political divides to somehow find their own courage just as you have Mitt. Because only God knows that right choices are never found in only one ideology, one party, or in one person. It takes more people of courage to vote convictions, to reach across the table and say, hey, that sounds right to me, can we talk about it. I hope that more people will look to your actions Mitt and do the same, even when it isn't self-serving, even when they fear that they won't be re-elected. I love that you said, you ignored your values and convictions at times and that you regret it. We saw that. But I believe you are forgiven, because don't we all do that at one time or another? We hide our truth and don't dare say or do what we really think, even though the whole world isn't watching us and even when the consequence isn't so huge, and even when maybe only God or the universe knows and they are not so harsh with us as public opinion, and social media and political parties and voters.

Mitt, I pray that you will be re-elected because the divisiveness in the world has darkened our view of the future. I pray that those like me whose rose-colored glasses have darkened so much that we can't see the light, the bright and the good, that we know is there all around us in our neighbors who plow driveways, and visit in the grocery store. It's there in the child with lemonade stands, in the parents pulling their children on sleds in the fields and so on and so on. We see it, but forget sometimes that the good is there and always has been and always will be. So Mitt, because to us in Utah, Mitt is Mitt and the only one who we know, so may you be surrounded and lifted by kindness and may you know that to many you have offered a glimmer of hope that we and others in positions of power can find strength beyond their own. Amen