should be ashamed. I really should. It was just a joke, but I'm not sure that's much, if any, excuse. The U.S. presidential races toward each party's nomination have begun. I'm following the coverage, when I can, with nearly the same enthusiasm that I seek the Lord in prayer and his Word.

Okay: I should be ashamed of that, too.

What I'm initially referring to is a joke that I e-mailed some friends about one of the candidates. In the midst of adrenalized enthusiasm for my favorite Christian-values-espousing presidential hopeful, I decried a rival as a would-be president "who takes his flying saucer to Camp David" for vacations.

It isn't the meanest thing I could have said. In a political blog, someone I work with deliberately described my candidate of choice as "kissing hands and shaking babies." My talented co-worker was equally smarmy in his references to the other candidates; so, especially within the secular environment within which we work, I saw no reason to make a federal case out of my misgivings.

Someone else's behavior is no excuse for misconduct on my part. I was reminded of this fact when I heard my favorite presidential hopeful speak: my favorite stressed that while it's important to stand for the faith-derivative values we hold dear, it's never acceptable to hate those who disagree.

This caused me to wince, a little, about the flying saucer remark.

When I came to 2 Peter 1:5-8 in my personal Bible study, I winced again. Peter, knowing he'll be called home soon, exhorts each of us to "make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control ...."

In the first verses of Matthew 5, the Beatitudes provide a lot of inspiration for virtue-building. The more I learn about my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the more I hunger for knowledge of both him and those things of the world that I might harness to use for his glory.

With help from the Lord - and sometimes, my teeth on my tongue - I'm working on the "self-control" part.