51 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-27-12”

  2. Anyone who arrives at 6:42 deserves to be first.
    But it’s 8:11 now. Where is everyone?

    It was an interesting day yesterday. Among other things, the church had a luncheon for couples who had been married to the same significant other for 50 years (or more). We had two there who had been married 68 years. We have a couple who is married 75 years, but they can’t get out. We understand that.

    😦 We have a funeral to attend this morning.
    Everyone have a nice day.

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  3. AJ, in case we forget to say it, we really, really appreciate your diligence in keeping this site going. I hope everyone realizes the commitment it takes to put these threads up early every morning AND include current news items. THANK YOU.

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  5. Yes, a great big continuing THANK YOU to AJ for what he is doing each day to enrich our lives.

    I am just wondering if anyone here will be sending out Christmas cards this year? I know, what kind of question is that when we have not even gone through Halloween. I have seen some nice Thanksgiving cards and those would be great to send out, too. Does anyone send out those greeting cards? I have a friend who usually sends a nice Thanksgiving card each year, and I really enjoy receiving that.

    We do send out Christmas cards as a beautiful tradition. I want to carry that on as long as possible. And we make use of, recycle, those old cards by using them in Sunday School projects.

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  7. Pauline, I think electronic greetings are fine and especially practical for those in the ministry who have so many who would like to hear from their pastor and his family. I don’t think I have received a card from my current pastor’s family. They do an open house each Christmas, and I think that is what they do instead of cards. I did receive a card from my former pastor’s family, and my husband and I receive a card from his current pastor’s family.

    I posted a prayer over on the prayer thread just now and included your needs, Pauline.

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  8. Stay dry, AJ! And with Janice’s question and your weather forecast, I think of another song:
    “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but inside it’s so delightful…”

    Did Chas have a birthday this week? In catching up on other threads it seems like it. If so, Happy (belated) Birthday!. If not, then “Happy Unbirthday!”

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  9. Can I pretend this is rants and raves?

    🙂 Celebrating one year married to a thoughtful, godly, smart, protective, funny, handsome, (. . .) man. (The unabridged version would take too many pages.)

    🙂 My hubby and my oldest brother and his wife finally got to meet.

    😦 Those two things coincided on the same day, so we didn’t get to have our fancy dinner out.

    🙂 They all liked one another, and my brother and my hubby made several good connections. (They’re both tall men, both watercolor artists, they have similar political and cultural opinions, etc.)

    🙂 We have had two or three beautiful days this week, and got a nice walk one or two days and a picnic at the park (and a walk) another day.

    🙂 I have enough work to keep me busy but not overwhelmed (a large and two smallish projects).

    🙂 I placed an order to get prints of the photos from our “second honeymoon” so I can now finish the album I started with our “first” honeymoon. (Fall photos and summer photos of Gatlinburg.) The package of photos is due today or Monday. . . .

    🙂 🙂 🙂 God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.

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  10. I am just wondering if anyone here will be sending out Christmas cards this year?

    I am not, but Mrs L takes care of that. Though we have sent them as Thanksgiving Cards once in the past. One year they ended up being New Year’s cards, since they didn’t get sent until after Jan 1.

    Do you write a newsletter? We are rather boring to most people, as nothing different really happens from year to year. But Mrs L insists on writing a newsletter. Most years, she could just send the same one as the year before and no one would know. Call me a curmudgeon, but since all but a few of the people she sends to are facebook friends, why send a letter with news they already have seen?

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  11. If Cheryl can do it, I can, too!

    🙂 Forrest turned 2 on Thursday. He is a delightful child. Our home has been his home now for over half his life.

    🙂 Good day yesterday babysitting that delightful child. Until…

    😦 Delightful Child’s father called me, on the warpath. Accused us of being “immature & irresponsible” about a certain issue. Claimed he was going to take us to court. Then said he was coming over to get Forrest, was going to keep him, & that we wouldn’t see Forrest for a long time.

    😦 Legally, we had to hand Forrest over to him. (Please pray Emily tries again for a legally-binding custody agreement.)

    😦 Spent a couple anxious hours not knowing if Emily would be able to get him back.

    🙂 But praised God that no matter what happens, we know He is in control, working in the situation, & that He would work out this situation for good, because we love God & are called according to His purpose.

    🙂 Emily called, finally, saying she had Forrest, & was on her way home.

    🙂 Huge sigh of relief!

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  12. On yesterday’s prayer thread, I mentioned that God answered a prayer before I could get here to post a request. That was it – Emily called right before I was about to get on the computer. 🙂

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  13. I haven’t sent out Christmas cards in years. I receive fewer and fewer.
    AJ, I am also thankful that you keep this site going. We will all be praying for you and the weather system headed your way. I will let you know if any of the power trucks are geared up to head your way. We are good at it. It’s what we do.

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  14. Thanks all!

    So, we seem to have need of a Rants and Raves type thread I see. What should we call it? I don’t want to steal World’s title, so give me some suggestions and maybe we’ll do a poll. You know I’m just looking for a reason to put up another poll. Then starting next Saturday we’ll post the new thread.

    🙂

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  15. AJ, I don’t see any reason not to copy World’s title–it isn’t copyrighted and they aren’t using it any more. (And I think it was a poster–anlir?–who suggested it, and not World staff.)

    Re Christmas cards, I do a Christmas letter with photos instead. Last year I did a letter without photos but enclosed one of those photo greeting cards with one photo of my hubby and me at our wedding and one photo of us with the girls at our wedding. This year it will be hard to narrow down what photos to use, I have so many good ones! (Family events, vacations.) I’ll probably do a “slide show” of miniature photos or something.

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  16. Delights and Demands?

    Things that happened this week that really seemed to be good and Things that happened this week that really seemed to be bad but since we know God brings good out of bad it is okay?

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  17. My hubby always paints a special picture which we then print onto our cards. Last year we pared down the list of who we sent cards to and had many friends wondering why they didn’t get a card! (we also goofed on our address labels and missed some we hadn’t meant too) Ooops. Back to the (literal) drawing board for this year. It is something he loves to do and apparently loved ones love to receive so…
    I love to receive Christmas cards and use them to help make my house even more festive! I love Christmas! Last night was our first small group Bible study of the year, hubby is leading this one, and we received a cute Christmas bowl filled with goodies! Our study is going through the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan. Interesting and challenging – it’s about how we individuals in the church have sort of pushed aside the Holy Spirit as part of our personal God. We know about Him intellectually but…

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  18. 🙂 Praise and Peeves?

    :)Over 12 inches of snow
    :)Neighbours who plough our yard without being asked!!!
    :(Not so nice roads
    :)Beauty in the nature all around us!

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  20. OK Cheryl,

    Thank you. Once again your knowledge of this stuff is helpful.

    Just give me a minute and it’ll be up.

    But if we want to rename it, keep the suggestions coming and we’ll decide that later.

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  21. If not Rants and Raves, how about Praises and Peeves (which I used on my blog a time or two)? Yeahs and Yucks? Booyahs (isn’t that a military cheer?) and Boos? Likes and Lacks? Nices and Nasties? Amens and Awfuls?

    You get the idea. There are a plethora of alliterative opposites we could use. And with all the wits on this blog, there is sure to be one we could find.

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  24. Yes, I send Christmas cards with a Christmas letter (including photos) inside. I limit it to front and back but remember, I’ve got a dozen people’s stories to include.

    In the years before FB, Christmas letters were my only form of communication with many old friends. I LOVE Christmas letters and don’t care if they’re full of bragging as long as they’re well written and not fluff.

    One year, I got two Christmas cards on the same July day. Both started out saying, “this is probably the only Christmas card you’re getting in July,” which made me laugh.

    I don’t care when people write me, as long as they write! 🙂

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  25. I’m a throw-back, I love Christmas cards still. I don’t get or send as many as in years past, however, and sometimes the time gets so short I send out a shortened version of the usual list.

    Some years I really enjoy the whole process of sitting down and getting the cards out; other years it becomes one more thing I’m scrambling to get done just under the wire. I used to write longer notes, not so much anymore.

    But I rarely completely miss a year without sending at least some out.

    In some cases, it’s the only way I’ve kept in touch with many friends who would have drifted away.

    There was one college-era friend I’d send a card to faithfully every year, but I never heard back or ever got a card from her.

    One year I didn’t send them one, I think it may have been one of those crazy years where I didn’t get cards sent, and here comes a note from her in January, “Where was your card? Everything OK?” — until then, I hadn’t even known she’d been getting my cards all those years, it was the first time I’d heard from her in years.

    Now, of course, things like FB keep us connected at least tangentially.

    But I find that Christmas cards can still be a good way to share the gospel during a special time of year — best cards I’ve found through the years are made & sold by a group called the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) in Pennsylvania, a ministry to college students.

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  29. Last night I mentioned not having audio anymore on my computer (due to new wireless mouse?). So I wasn’t able to watch the video my friend Sandy posted, with the words “SHOCKING Mitt Romney Footage: ‘I’m A Big Believer In Getting Money Where Money Is, And It’s In Washington’ ”

    Anyone know what this is all about or what his point actually was?

    Here’s the link to the video I didn’t watch, if you’re interested…

    http://front.moveon.org/shocking-mitt-romney-footage-im-a-big-believer-in-getting-money-where-money-is-and-its-in-washington/#.UIqx-ftf32o.facebook

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  30. And supposedly there’s a survey (or some such thing) that shows that 51% of Americans are “anti-black”. I know prejudice still exists, but is there really that much still?

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  32. Karen, I saw that, and they asked people whether or not they equate certain words (lazy, friendly, etc.) with whites, blacks, Hispanics. Honestly, that sort of thing seems really stupid. First off, one can’t generalize to everyone of all races, but second, let’s assume they insist that you do so for the survey . . . if you say yes, white people are lazy, maybe it’s not because you’re racist but because the white people you know are mostly lazy. In other words, maybe it isn’t “prejudice” but “stereotype” that is an issue. And stereotypes are sometimes not unfair bias, but oversimplification of reality. (If you live in the Ozarks your impression of white people might be horrid. If you live in the ghetto, your bad experience might be with blacks or Hispanics.)

    In other words, if someone says that editors are too nitpicky or too bookish, it might not mean that he is anti-editor; it might mean that a generalization of editors is that they are this way . . . and there might actually be some truth to it.

    But it’s really, really stupid to ask for generalized perceptions and then assume that the ones doing the perceiving have an unfair bias. There are at least two other possibilities: one is that generalizing is a tricky sport and really might not be the best way to conduct a questionnaire. Two is that the things being reported are actually at least possibly true. (The report I read gave a little bit of detail, but it was short on it too; they seemed to want people to focus on the 51% number and not on how good or bad the survey actually was.)

    At least in the detail-limited report I read, they didn’t even separate out the different responses from different races. I have a hunch the typical black person in a violent neighborhood just might connect “violent” to “black” too, not because of animus but because of life experience. I personally know a couple of black people who don’t like black renters or employees because of their own life experiences. Are they racists? And I’ve been told that some black people hate stereotypes that they’re cheerful or good dancers–for all I know they could have thrown in some words we’d consider positive but that they see as proof or racism.

    This isn’t the way to get us to a society where different ethnicities work to know and trust each other. It really isn’t.

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  33. Karen, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have audio on the computer unless some wires are loose, or the volume is turned down.
    Things like that happen. I was having trouble with the internet connection and after much searching, I realized that I had the power turned off at the switch.
    :blush:

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  34. Last year I had a very unique experience addressing Christmas cards. I took all my supplies up to Harrah’s at Cherokee, NC because my husband had a conference there. It was my birthday, and I spent a good portion of the day, while my husband was in his meetings (learning about the upcoming changes on the tax prep system), doing the cards. I used my church directory, his church directory and my personal address book so it took some time to address them all. After doing that for most of the day, we planned to go to a nice restaurant for dinner that was a distance from where we were staying. I think it is named the Jarred House (?). When we finally arrived it was closed. Momentary sadness came until we headed back to Cherokee, and we witnessed the most beautiful sunset we would not have seen otherwise. We ended up going to one of the only restaurants open in Cherokee which was a buffet type place across from the hotel. I had no idea that in winter Cherokee shuts down except for the casino. I think that is why the conference was there. They got great room rates. Anyway, after our not so fancy dinner we walked across the parking lot to a store that was open. It was an “As Seen on TV” store, and we were about the only people in there. We still laugh about my big birthday night out on the town! At least I did get my cards done that day and enjoyed a late room service breakfast that was shared with my husband during his lunch break.

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  36. I just realized that the ages of the ladies I went with to the play today are from five different decades. I am in my 50’s, another was in her 60’s, another in her 70’s , another in her 80’s and finally, the oldest in her 90’s. I find so much enjoyment in their company and listening to their stories.

    My husband is watching the World Series. I was giving my commentary about the players, especially about how the San Francisco pitcher looks like he should be a muscian or artist with his long hair. Then I notices a guy with a really long beard and I said he looks like he has been doing “The Year of Living Biblically” like that book. Then I decidedx my husband might prefer to enjoy the game without my commentatary. So here I am making comments to y’all.

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  37. Sorry for those spelling/typing errors. I can’t always view or review what I have typed in because of how this blog works on my computer so I can’t correct my errors before I hit send.

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  39. Paul and I went to see Argo today. Some rough language, but over all a good movie. I heard an interview with Ben Afleck who said it would be a horrible premise for a movie if it weren’t true. Sitting through the movie (remember I was in elementary school when all this happened) made me realize again that nothing happens in a vacuum. Actions taken by the US and Great Britain in the 1950’s led to what happened in 1979. It was interesting to sit in the theater after the credits rolled and read what happend to the people afterwards.

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  41. Kim, my cousin and I were going to see that this week but I bailed. Not sure it’ll still be around when we reschedule, but it does sound good.

    I’m praying, too, for our east coasters.

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  44. I’m feeling a bit down today (to say the least). 😦

    I think the problem stems from lack of support. I really don’t have much of a support system.

    So, whereas most healthy people can express an opinion and take a bit of flack for it … I find that I can’t anymore very well. I really think being able to handle disagreement and “flack” stems from whether or not one has a healthy support system. And, while I’m a nice, strong, and rather opinionated person (grin), after a lot of years of not feeling that support, even for a strong, opinionated person (lol) it becomes an issue.

    If you know that your friends and family love and support you no matter what, you can “stick your neck out” a bit, get slapped once in awhile, and take it all in stride, because your foundation is solid.

    But, when you feel that you don’t have that strong foundation, even little slaps (which are normal … after all, no one agrees perfectly. In fact, I don’t always agree with MYSELF! lol) can really rock a person around.

    This week I’ve had a FB friend get quite grumpy with me about her pro-abortion stance, my BIL get highly grumpy with me about his pro-Obama stance, and another couple of friends get grumpy with me about my nutritional stance. 😦

    Of the three things, I’m really far less invested in my nutritional stance, which is growing and changing and being added to all the time. After all, I’m moving from an almost entirely processed-foods-based life to an almost entirely scratch, “real food” based life. And, I admit that I don’t have it all down yet. 😉

    But, it just seems that I’m way too overly-sensitive toward disagreements recently. 😦 I don’t blame the people for disagreeing (well … to be honest, I don’t blame the people who disagree with me about nutrition!! I am never going to agree about abortion or Obama!!) I think I’ve finally just gotten worn down.

    At any rate, I’d love to have a strong support system other than my mother, who is generally my greatest cheer leader and friend, but who lives over 900 miles away. :-(.

    My husband loves me, and often agrees with my opinions, but is not a good support system. And, my kids are great, but that isn’t their place or job. It is MY job to support THEM. 🙂

    I spent years investing in being a good friend to certain persons who simply have never been good supporters, and probably aren’t really even friends. My last good friend — who was truly a great friend — moved away a few years ago. 😦

    Sometimes I wonder if I’m not all that likeable. I do appear to most people to be a very strong person. And, I am certainly opinionated (although, in person, I have long since learned to be quiet about most of my opinions. That, and I’m honestly willing and able to CHANGE my opinions when I am exposed to new ideas, so I consider that a great plus.)

    I appear extroverted to a lot of people, because I speak well in front of groups and am very good at running/organizing things. But, socially (i.e. one-on-one) I always feel uncomfortable and do make a first impression of being less friendly than I’d like. It is because I’m uncomfortable (and often busy running the activity), and not really because I’m feeling unfriendly. But, people judge me by how I *seem* to be — I’m a great actress in groups — rather than by how I really AM. They think I’m strong, and “with it” and charismatic (what they see when I’m in charge), but don’t realize that I’m actually rather introverted and uncomfortable when dealing with people one-on-one until I really get to know them. 😦 So, when I’m not charismatic in person, or tend to be difficult to get to know, I think people assume that I don’t really like them or something. 😦

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  45. The good news is that I finally started to lose weight again. After a pretty good start (having lost about 40 lbs. since Easter), I stalled the last month, even gaining back a few pounds due to birthdays. 😦 But, I’ve started losing again (43 lbs. now!) and am very close to a milestone. 🙂

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  46. Gee,Tammy. Based on what I knew about you from World Mag Blog, I drove 2 and 1/2-3 hours with my daughter to spend the day with you and your daughter. I got us lost and you got us back on track (I was supposed to be the “local”) We had a great day with you and really enjoyed your company. I liked the person I met that day.

    We all cycle through things and feel more down some days than others. I am not discounting what you feel right now. What you feel is what you feel. I am just telling you that if we lived closer we would propbably be lunch date friends. We wouldn’t agree on everything because as much as I admire your stance on nutrition I don’t have the will power to do what you do. As much as I admire you home-schooling your children it isn’t something I could make work. I would probably like to be more like you but I am more like me..

    Just know that I think you are the most perfect you that you can be. {{{{Tammy}}}}

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  47. Tammy, you are right that support makes a huge difference. It is difficult to be a lone light on a hill. And, as I mentioned to Pauline, I suspect a lot of us have few “friends” though we may have lots of acquaintances. I mentioned that I have a friend, with whom I rarely speak more than a few minutes a month. But it helps. It also helps to have the friends on here. Not all are “friends”, in fact none are traditional friends. But I know I have a few people on here who will pray for me in areas they do not understand. I will pray for them though they don’t always tell what they need. I know I can talk to a few of them about things that are very important to me and maybe insignificant to others. They give tremendous support. It helps more than I could have imagined ten years ago when I first started on here. It is not the same as having a live person to hang out with. But, there is nobody around here, within forty miles, that I have found, who understands what I am doing. My friend lives beyond that but we see each other often at church.

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  48. Tammy, I went the first half of my life with very few “real” friends. (Between ages 12 and 22 I had NONE closer in age than five years older than me. The one I had until age 12 moved to Argentina that year, and didn’t write to me.) In my college years I made a deliberate choice to learn how to make friends–and one of my friends who has known me since those years told me a couple of years ago that my loneliness our first semester was so visible on my face that she was scared for me. (I was nearly two thousand miles away from home, had no financial support from family and very little emotional support–my mom would call me every other week, but only if I called her when it was “my turn” and the reality was that putting my way through college made my own calls something I couldn’t realistically afford, but I made them because I had to. And I didn’t make any friends that first semester, though I set the groundwork for relationships that eventually became friendships.) I remember to this day how many hugs I had those first four months of college–four. An average of one per month. And one of my “love languages” is touch. In other words, loneliness is something I know intimately.

    In the years since college I’ve kept up with friendships, never vast numbers of friends (that holds no interest for me), but a few close friends and then a number who are definitely friends but not intimate friends.

    Now I’m far away from all my friends, haven’t made new ones here. New potential friends, probably. I’ve gone out to lunch with one of those potential friends twice. But circumstances are such that it’s a slow process (e.g., our church is quite some distance away and small, I work from my home, and we’re out in the country). And I live close to my husband’s family and I love them; we see them every week or two. And I adore my husband and the girls. But I miss my girlfriends. And cell phone and e-mail contact only really isn’t “enough” for me to feel well connected to most of them. But it is where I am right now. It’s a tradeoff, and a worthwhile one–I wouldn’t go back to my single days for anything–but there are still lonely aspects of it.

    I learned years ago, and found it somewhat comforting (maybe I shouldn’t have) that most people feel more isolated than they appear. In my experience, the ones who look most outgoing are sometimes the loneliest of all–because they need people’s affirmation to feel important. That helps me to “initiate” a bit more than I would normally do, and it also helps me not to take it personally if someone rebuffs me. It also helps me feel less alone–we all need each other more than we sometimes admit, so I can encourage others the best I can, be encouraged in return, but know that really only God can fully satisfy . . . and He won’t do so in this life.

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  49. Not to discount the importance of what Tammy said about her situation, I think there is a spirit of heaviness right now with this election coming up. FB can drive you crazy with the almost vindictive-sounding posts from both sides.

    I had a political discussion with my brother-in-law yesterday about Benghazi which left me a total wreck and not able to fall asleep. I prayed a long time–“what is this, Lord? Is there sin in my heart? What do I need to confess? Do I need to confess something? Am I hurt because members of my family seem to care more about their politics than about someone who has loved them for so many years? Should I continue to eat crow? Do I care that much? Do I believe God is in control?”

    I was unable to pray my way to the bottom of that one, and thus have no answer.

    I’ve been praying for a friend for Pauline, but let’s add Tammy on the list and Mumsee and anyone else who could use someone “with skin on.” 🙂

    And, too, let’s be grateful the Lord has put together a truly motley group of Christian brothers and sisters on this site!

    Thanks be to God.

    xoxox

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  50. You can add me to that list. From eighth grade until about age 35 I always had a pretty rich social network, rich both in size and depth. Then, all at about the same time, I left the Christian ministry that was at once my work, my home, and my community, I moved away, and becoming a husband and father–none of which I regret–left less time and energy to cultivate other relationships.

    We’ve been in the same church since we moved to Michigan 17 years ago, where I have lots of help and support in times of need, but not the same depth of relationship I had as a younger man.

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  51. I am so-o-o-o thankful that I can come here and know that people may not feel exactly like I do about things, but at least we are on the same wavelength. I have been a part of another similar blog group, but it had fewer people and was related to a devotional site. There were only about eight regular contributors and it did have a resident atheist who was more ornery than Random. At one point there were two of that mindset, but one was permanently banned as far as I know. This site is more personal and offers what I consider to be true Christian friendship.

    The Atlanta area has had very strong winds bringing down some trees, and 4,500 people are out of power tonight. We did not have even a flicker of the lights, but there was a lot of noise from the wind.

    Praying about this storm and also the election among other things.

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