What God Showed the VP and Second Lady About Rising to Political Office

On her election day podcast, Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence’s daughter recounts an uplifting true story from her childhood about how God guided her parents into political life. Charlotte Pence Bond explains how her father ran for a Congressional seat from Indiana two times (1988 and 1990), losing both times. He then settled into a successful radio broadcasting career in the Hoosier state, as well as busying himself in some policy analyst work. But she explains her parents were wondering whether God might want them to enter a third congressional race and they took that question with them quietly on a family vacation to the Rocky Mountains.

Pence Bond explained that her mother and father regularly told their campaign staffs the following story every election day to make sure each employee knew how they approached holding political office and its power as Christians. Her family was standing on a beautiful mountain cliff in either Montana or Colorado, she couldn’t recall. But it was beautiful, and the family stood overlooking a majestic valley. Her parents and two other siblings were watching two hawks fly high above the expanse. How they were flying that caught her mom’s attention specifically. They were completely still, just gliding on wing. Charlotte said, “The hawks are just letting the wind carry them.” And her mom spoke up, saying to her dad, “If we are going to run again, we’re going to run like those two hawks. No flapping. We’re going to let God carry us …. up to a position. Or not. We are going to glide.”

The Pence daughter explained,

What mom meant by that was we are not going to try to get there on our own. …Obviously you have to work hard, but we’re not going to start worrying, we’re not going to start flapping our wings, afraid we are gonna fall, wanting to be ambitious and successful.

She adds,

We’re just going to let God carry us, and if He carries us, then He carries us. …It’s a very precious story to our family. It’s so real and true to our family, that my parents live out daily.

Charlotte also provides a very personal glimpse into what the Vice President and Second Lady were like as parents raising their three young children in the world of politics.

Pence was elected to Congress from Indiana on his third try and their entire family moved to DC to live so that they could all be together throughout their father’s 12 years in Congress. She explains, “My parents always included us in what they were doing, but we didn’t have to do anything (politically) we didn’t want to do.” The Pences’ told their children, “You’re allowed to be in every meeting, every single event, you’re allowed to be there, up front and center.” But they also were sure to let their children know, “But if you don’t want to go to anything, you don’t have to go.” Charlotte explained, “And that is always the way it was when we were little. And it’s still that way.”

She explains how this parenting approach helped her to discover and explore the things she was passionate about, which turned out to be writing and media. She recounts that her famous mom and dad’s way of parenting “helps a child to figure out what they want to do when they are given the opportunity to watch their parents fulfill their dreams, live out their dreams, follow God’s calling on their lives.”

Recalling how well her parent’s approach of simply trusting God to guide them to the next thing worked out for them, she applies that to her own family’s life. “Even now, I try to remind myself of that, to try your hardest. It doesn’t mean you don’t try.” But to always “do your absolute best … but also allow God to lift you up to the place and just follow His calling and His will for your life.”

Pence Bond recounted how her dad says all the time, that he could not have imagined in his wildest dreams that he would be Vice President of the United States. “He always wanted to serve in Congress, and being governor was also this incredible extra thing for him. But Vice President, that was like “what?”.

Charlotte Pence Bond explains why she chose to recount the genesis of her parent’s political career on this very momentous election day,

I wanted to tell that story to remind us that God is faithful, and He does have a plan. I want to encourage you, if you are nervous today, on election day, just remember that God has a plan for us and there’s a lot of unrest in our nation, there is a lot of uncertainty, people seem very divided. But I want to remind you, things have been uncertain in the past, and God has been faithful. And just remember, Christians are meant to be different.

Photo from Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Visit our Election 2020 page