73 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-10-12”

  2. Ricky, it might be Israel.

    I need to cut grass once more and put the lawn mower away. Putting it away takes about half an hour because I have to drain the gas, sharpen the blades, and clean it.

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  3. Good morning, we are expecting fine weather today too. For us that is rain. Not great flying weather, but I am off to Orlando anyway as for as I know.

    How about this as a question of the day? Do you know someone personally who is addicted to politics? I mean it rules their moods like a capricious despot, not just someone who is concerned and up on current event.

    Adios

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  4. I have a friend whose faith was severly shaken by the election. Truth to tell, she once had a great walk with the Lord, but in the last 10 years has withdrawn from everything but her job–college professor in English–and scouring the web for another “hit” in the battle between Dems and Pubs. Here email to me the morning after the election was “I drank an entire bottle of wine . . . and am in despari.”

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  5. Thanks for the article, Ricky. Good thoughts (his and yours).

    Today we’re off to visit 2nd Arrow, and the cat she took with her (one of the four cats we had already had). Hubby will be doing some repairs at his sister’s house, with whom 2nd Arrow lives.

    Have a nice Saturday, all!

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  6. QoD: Yes. I have a BIL who used to talk politics almost non-stop. It has improved some now that he has children, and therefore other things to talk about.

    Congratulations on the new grandchild, Adios! Glad to hear baby got here safely. Boy or girl?

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  7. Today I go to bury a friend of 35 years. He was so well loved that the small church he pastors is renting a middle school auditorium for the funeral. There will be 300 or so people from all over the country (and some form overseas). I am glad he is now worshiping the King at the foot of His throne.

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  8. Are we going to have rants and raves today. I have a rave. My SIL who has been working for years with a bad back trying to make her 35 year milestone so she can get a good retirement package made it. We are going to her retirement party next Friday. 🙂

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  9. Part of my job now is to talk to people all over the country. I haven’t spoken to anyone who is happy over the election results or before that who was planning to vote for Obama.
    It just makes me wonder…

    The election is over. There is nothing I can do about it to change. The only thing/person I can control is myself and my thoughts and actions–and sometimes I can’t even do that!

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  10. Kim, see my post on the Political Thread. All we can do is pray for America, for each other and ourselves.
    I see judgement ahead for America and the world.
    More on that later. On the Political Thread.

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  11. One thing I have learned about a life time of Iron Bowls and elections is not to get too cocky or discouraged. It will all eventually turn the other way.

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  12. The grass is cut.

    Yay!

    Now for a walk with the ladies, and then some football.

    🙂

    I wonder what’s for dinner?

    Oh wait, I make dinner. So I guess that can only mean one thing……

    PIZZA!!!!!

    🙂

    ‘Cuz I don’t feel like cookin’.

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  13. No rain in LA, Adios — maybe just south around your way. We have a beautiful, clear, blue-sky/blue-ocean kind of day with a cold wind. It’s so clear you can see the season’s first snow on the top of the mountains in the distance. Yay!!

    I can get into a political addition during big campaigns, but I chalk that up partly to the business I’m in also.

    But now I’m looking forward to a break in all of that. I grew weary a few years ago of this over-used phrase I’m about to us, but “it is what it is.”

    I’m hoping, too, that it can be an instrument God uses to bring more people to him — and to bring his own people now into closer communion and reliance upon him alone.

    It’s hard to know what this all means in God’s Providence. It will all be made clear in the end. It could be a blip, it could be a turning point in terms of the history of mankind or nations.

    But our part is to be faithful.

    (My veterinarian, who in fairly recent years apparently, has become a believer was talking to me about this the other day when I was in for an appointment w/Cowboy; as a small business owner he was also a bit downcast by the election results. But then he mentioned how he’d had the amazing opportunity to share Christ with someone who accepted the message only 2 hours before his death that week. We always need to keep in mind what is truly important — and to keep on keepin’ on.)

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  18. Chas,

    Were you the one that turned me on to the book *The End of America – The Role of Islam in the End Times and Biblical Warnings to Flee America* by John Price?

    I finished reading it. Very thought provoking.

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  19. “Part of my job now is to talk to people all over the country. I haven’t spoken to anyone who is happy over the election results or before that who was planning to vote for Obama.
    It just makes me wonder”

    This reminds me of the story about the New York City liberal who in ’68 or ’72 said “But nobody I know voted for Nixon!”

    Methinks that like that person, you may be living in kind of an echo chamber, talking only to people who think like you. There is certainly some kind of filtering going on, as more people who voted voted for Obama than for Romney. Tear down the walls of that echo chamber!

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  22. I suspect some business sectors lean conservative. Others lean liberal (I’d love just one person for an echo where I work!).

    And to be honest, while the president was soundly re-elected, the popular vote pretty much was (almost) evenly split. So there were a whole lot of people who voted the other way; the chances of running into a few are pretty high. 😉

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  24. Yeah, and that doesn’t even include the people (many of whom I know … sigh), who can’t stand Obama or his policies, but who voted 3rd party or abstained from voting all together, because they refused to vote for Romney.

    I told them that their refusal to vote, or third party vote, would be construed as support for Obama, but they didn’t think that was true and felt that they should vote (or not) by conscience.

    Seriously, even without the third party voters, if all the Christians who didn’t vote had (and 80% of them went to Romney as it did in the actual voting), then Romney would have won.

    So, as worried as I am about the state of America, I’m convinced that Obama actually doesn’t necessarily have the majority of the country behind him.

    Unfortunately, it’s enough, and may have reached the “tipping point” of no return and God’s justice. 😦

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  25. Tammy, It wasn’t me who recommended the book. But it sounds interesting. I may look into it myself.
    If you are interested in such things, I recommend to you God’s War on Terror by Walid Shoebat, a former Muslim terrorist. He takes a completely different approach from most other teachings about the Tribulation.
    A rather complicated book, but easy to read because the chapters are short.
    Someone here, I think JoeB, recommended it to me.

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  26. Thanks, Karen, for responding to “Mr. C.” He is my heavily Left-leaning, Obama-loving, looney, Liberal brother-in-law.

    The sad thing is that he *thinks* he’s more-or-less mainstream!

    He tilts so Left that I’m surprised he can walk upright. He makes me so angry that I don’t even want to read any of his replies to my FB posts, because it could cause me to go non-linear and refuse to visit for Christmas! (For shame on me!)

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  28. Oh! Well, I thought it pretty good. And, because the author truly believes that his message is important, he’s made the book very cheap on the Kindle.

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  29. I read this one awhile ago, and Price recommends it in his book. I plan on reading it again. It sounds as if it would go right along with Shoebat.

    *The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast* by Joel Richardson (this is a pseudonym, because Mr. Richardson is a converted-to-Christianity Muslim, and he received so many death threats when researching the book, that he thought it best to change his name.)

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  30. In our discussion in SS this morning, someone mention Petraeus, as an example. I almost never mention politics, but I said that with Democrats, it is career enhancement.
    Question: What kept Newt from the nomination?
    Answer: Personal baggage that Clinton, and the Kennedys, et al get away with.

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  31. Oh!! When I went to Shoebat’s book, guess who contributed to it?? Joel Richardson! So, I was right. They do all agree with one another. 😉

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  33. Whoops! I may be mixing Joel up with another author who writes about similar things. Joel Rosenberg is his real name. Now, I’m confused. 😉 But, if I find the other book, I’ll post it. (His book was good, though, if I remember correctly … but, of course, I’ve just demonstrated that sometimes I don’t! lol)

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  35. Joel Rosenberg has written a series of novels you may enjoy. I have a list somewhere. His novels are enjoyable, definitely from a Christian standpoint. But he has good information about current technology, much as Clancy would do.
    The Twelfth Imam is one of them, but it’s a series. If you start reading them, I would suggest finding the first book of the series. I don’t remember which that is.
    He does preach a lot. Not quite up to Clancy, but close. He has good background.
    I think Rosenberg used to work for Rush. I don’t know what he did, but Rush mentions his books; not in commercials.

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  36. I believe in admitting when I am in error. I predicted that the election would be so close that it would end up in dispute and in the Supreme Court as did a recent Presidential election. As I was traveling, and as my wife did not want to hear about the election, it took me a couple of days to learn that Barak Obama had won. I was puzzled. How could this be when the genuine Christian, Mitt Romney, was clearly surging. I am puzzled. How did Obama win?

    A) Minorities have taken over America from the true Americans? I did think the “true Americans were aboriginal peoples who lived here before Christian Europeans arrived, but obviously Christian Europeans lost their grip on things. For example, electing a partly black man (that is, partly un-American man) indicates Americans are losing their grip. Freeing slaves and giving women the vote were bad signs.

    B) Muslims have taken over America. Islam was invented by the devil (obviously). The Devil is winning the battle with God. All Christians will be subject to persecution and prohibited from worshiping, or even going to Church. I hope everyone reading this is hiding in their church with lots of firearms, preparing to defend it from the hordes of ravening orcs about to storm your church.

    C) Religion is nonsense. Well, that’s OBVIOUSLY nonsense, so don’t consider C) for a second.

    D) I stole the election.

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  37. Today is Veterans Day. We all stood to be recognized in church. I don’t remember doing that in Virginia.
    I never considered being a veteran a big thing. I joined the Air Force because it was the smart thing to do under the circumstances. I actually liked doing what I did.
    Being a veteran got me $110/mo on which to attend college.
    It allowed me to get a loan for my first house.
    It got me five points on the Federal Service Entrance Exam.
    Otherwise, I never thought much about it.

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  38. I found the book I was speaking of earlier by the former Muslim, who now goes by a pseudonym.

    *Islam And Terrorism: What the Quran really teaches about Christianity, violence and the goals of the Islamic jihad* by Mark A. Gabriel.

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  39. 1) Romney is not a “genuine Christian.” Mormons are not Christians. They are not even a Christian sect. They are a separate religion.

    2) The Bible predicts that Christians will seem to be “losing” the culture war, the country, and world before the end.

    3) We may lose most of the battles, or even ALL of them, but the War is already won. 🙂

    4) Not a person that has ever posted on this list, so far as I know, has EVER made a racist or sexist comment, so I am quite offended by your accusations.

    5) I don’t really know why I even talk to you. You know all this, or should after all these years, but it doesn’t really sink in. Since you’re obviously not stupid, and you can’t plead ignorance, it must be simple obstinence.

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  40. BTW, I remember being impressed with Gabriel’s book. He was the first that I read connecting Islam to the religion prophesied in the Bible and to the anti-Christ. And, it made sense to me, because I had suggested it myself on a prophecy discussion list many years before, and been “pooh-poohed” over it. 😉

    At any rate, I tend to be a “pan-tribulationist” (lol), but like to be up on it. About the only version of the end times that I think doesn’t make a lick of sense is the “the world will get better and better and more and more Christian until Christ returns,” and “all the prophecies were fulfilled at the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.” I think those are demonstrably false as evidenced by our world and by referencing the Bible in relation to both our present day and 70 AD.

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  41. It’s a cold and somewhat snowy morning here…I’m mean it is COLD!!
    Qod: I have a very dear friend who has been acting “over the top” concerning this election….she is consumed with the Libya crisis and plasters links and rants all over FB….I appreciate her passion, but, I have begun hiding her posts. A couple of times she has posted untruths she has read from other sites….I have pointed them out to her, but, she refuses to let it go…it does seem there is quite a bit of “the wringing of the hands” going on.
    On a much brighter note….we attended a small Reformed Church this morning and I just wanted to cry as we sang from the Psalter…no musical instruments…perfect harmony…words which were honoring to our Lord…
    The young man who is the Pastor has such a heart for the our Lord and His Word…we three left there smiling…oh…and the Pastor ran after us in the parking lot to welcome us and thank us for coming…
    We’re going back…it is well with my soul 🙂

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  42. Nancyjill, sounds like a good church. 🙂

    We heard a good message from Romans (which we’re going through) — with some expanded attention given to God’s sovereignty. A few of the other verses we visited:

    “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord, who does all these things” (Isa. 45:7)

    God to Pharaoh: “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex. 9:16)

    “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” (Isa. 40:28)

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  43. Regarding FB political rants, “hiding” is a wonderful tool, especially around election time. 🙂

    I’ve had some obsessed friends as well — some have quieted down now that they’ve won the election; another one (who could not/would not stop gloating in post-election, obnoxious, obscenity-laced rants mostly aimed at Fox News) I actually cut from my friends list, first time I’ve ever done that.

    It did give me a sense of satisfaction to do that, I hate to admit. 😉

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  44. I was in the toddler room today 🙂

    Such precious little children.

    So I don’t know what the message was, but likely on the Holy Spirit.

    Chas, thank you for serving.

    In Canada today is Remembrance Day. We all (most) wear a poppy to honour our veterans.

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  45. I have only “hidden” two people who are so very Liberal that their posts just made my tummy hurt.

    I “unfriended” only one person … before the election, and not due to the election. She “batch insulted” all Christians who think homosexuality is wrong. I questioned her about it, and then she personally insulted me … twice. I told her that, since she felt so comfortably personally insulting me, that I didn’t see the benefit of being FB friends anymore, but I’d be happy to refriend her with an apology. Nothing yet! 😦

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  46. Finally! News from NJL!

    “I am fine! The worst that has happened to me is that I have to go to the library to access the email (which is where I am now). I would have seen this sooner if I wasn’t working the long hours. They made us leave by 4 p.m. — but we needed that because there are still lights out and trees down.

    “My friend at the shore did not fare well. Many of my coworkers were out for more than a week because the transportation from NYC is horrible. We still don’t have the train in my town.

    “I gassed up before the storm, so I waited to get more gas, thereby avoiding the LONG lines (6 hours for some). Christie is doing a fine job with this crisis. He implemented odd/even, so the first time I waited 20 minutes, yesterday I just drove up and bought gas.

    ” I will soon be back at the blog. I think about you all often. Please report that God protected me in the storm. (I even had brains enough to move my care from its usual spot and thereby avoided the one tree that fell in the lot!)

    ” Food was a little scarce because the stores had no power, but I am well fed, though eggs were over $4 a dozen.”

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  47. I would “hide” my sis and my BIL, but that wouldn’t go over too well. Besides, they already self-censor, I think. I don’t get most of their political posts anymore, so I think they’ve made “lists,” and don’t send them to me. Of course, that means that I rarely hear from them, because their lives REVOLVE around politics and their respective unions. That’s okay. My tummy would just hurt again anyway. 😉

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  49. I happen to have a FB friend is very far Right. She posts lots of stuff that is inflammatory, unproved, and open to ridicule. She’s really “in” to conspiracy theories. She probably posts AT LEAST 30 political posts a day. I had her hidden in the past, but I just skim over it now. Sometimes, there’s a gem posted in there. 😉

    I try to be careful to post things that are at least reasonably true and possible. 🙂 I try to limit myself. But, I do post on FB a lot. 😦

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  51. Nancy Jill,

    You would laugh at me. I think it is very cold here, and it is 46 deg.! I was sitting here in a heavy jacket, and then I turned on the heat. Now, the jacket is off. 🙂

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  53. I’m so glad to hear from NJL! Thanks, Michelle for passing the message along. I sounds like she weathered the storm well and is in reasonably good spirits. That’s definitely a ‘RAVE’. :–)

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  55. Tammy wrote:

    Romney is not a “genuine Christian.” Mormons are not Christians. They are not even a Christian sect. They are a separate religion.

    News to quite a few people, including quite a few people in the Republican party. Whew. I guess it’s a good thing that Mitt Romney was not elected President. Yet so few people here are grateful to Barak for winning. Go figure.

    The Bible predicts that Christians will seem to be “losing” the culture war, the country, and world before the end. We may lose most of the battles, or even ALL of them, but the War is already won.

    Reminds me when I discovered at WMG why Christianity is so exciting. We all know (except Satan, that big dummy) that God wins in the end. However, each individual soul’s fate is up in the air. I bet you are not really sure of your own soul’s fate, are you? So everything is “already won,” but really nothing is really won for sure. I am so dumb that I realize that I will die and cease to exist, but you might get to live for ever, perhaps in eternal joy WHICH NEVER GETS BORING, or perhaps in ETERNAL TORMENT (if only the absence of God if not in ETERNAL FIRE, which never gets boring). [For all Christians prate about eternity, they are the people who least understand the concept.]

    Not a person that has ever posted on this list, so far as I know, has EVER made a racist or sexist comment, so I am quite offended by your accusations.

    Did I say anyone here was racist or sexist? I am quite sure no one here considers himself or herself racist or sexist.

    Years ago, I taught for a while in a ghetto school. After commuting for a long time (from an an almost entirely white community some distance away), my wife, small daughter and I decided to rent a house in a mostly black neighborhood close to the school. On looking at our white faces, three white landlords all expressed their great enthusiasm and desire to rent to us. I am sure none of these landlords considered themselves the least bit racist.

    I don’t really know why I even talk to you. You know all this, or should after all these years, but it doesn’t really sink in. Since you’re obviously not stupid, and you can’t plead ignorance, it must be simple [obstinacy].

    I am glad you regard me as not stupid or ignorant. (At times, I have my doubts.) Perhaps it is merely that I am obstinate (which I am indeed). Perhaps it is also that I am correct, or at least more correct than you are. For example, it is much more likely that the being known as God does not exist than that He does. We are still early in the process of the majority of humans realizing we are alone and on our own, but we are gradually getting there. Than what?

    [By the way, I don’t know why anyone at WV talks to me. If you ceased to talk to me, I would probably go away. Of course, you need to get everyone to be with the program. I’ve never seen that strategy to work, but there’s always a first time. There might be a first time for Christ to return.

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  56. Indeed I am dumb. I failed to turn off italic in last two paragraphs. As everyone here is smarter than I am you realized this already. No need to confirm that you are smarter and more insightful than I am, but it’s fine if you humbly tell me so.

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  58. Soo, we were discussing the political situation and the freedom pastors have to preach political viewpoints from the pulpit and how we were put under a spell for a while on that. Anyway, the young adults had, what I thought, was an interesting question. What can they do to be active in politics? They want to change the world back to sanity.

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  59. “…that I didn’t see the benefit of being FB friends anymore, but I’d be happy to refriend her with an apology. Nothing yet!”

    Tammy – She’s still waiting for that apology! 😉

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  62. Kare, our church does not have a toddler room or a separate Sunday school class, or a nursery, but we could not avail ourselves of it if there were those things. There is no way anybody we have met would treat our children as strictly and forcibly as we do and our children absolutely need it or they would run all over the care taker.

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  63. Mumsee, it is indeed hard to be strict with other people’s children. Today we had very easy going kids except for one special needs child, who kept throwing things. At least she always threw things away from other kids – I don’t know, but I wonder if she knew what she was doing. I accidentally got in the way of a block she had thrown and she immediately looked sorry and said “hugs”? She was very precious, but challenging.

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  65. freedom pastors have to preach political viewpoints from the pulpit . . .

    Churches own property and use public services such as roads, police, ambulances, water supplies, and so on. They generate income from donations, & some business-like activities.They are exempt from most taxes, with fewer restrictions than most irreligious “non-profit” organizations.

    So perhaps I would be more sympathetic to this “possible” plight if churches paid taxes like any other business. Though then they would be subject to consumer protection laws. I am dumb, but not so dumb that I file a complaint because churches advertise and collect money for being whose existence cannot be proven or demonstrated in any fashion, and a service that cannot be provided, “life after death and reward for virtue or belief and punishment for wickedness.”

    How would any consumer-protection agency deal with a complaint from someone who takes their church seriously and then had doubts and complained “I tithed for something that cannot possible be delivered.” This would be a case that would keep the Supreme Court of the United States in knots for at least a century. If not an eternity.

    We just talked to our daughter and learned that her cat (an absolutely delightful and “divine” feline now has cancer. I suppose I should post it in the “prayer” thread, but I never follow the rules. Pray for the health of Sylvie, the world’s most divine feline.

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  68. Is there some sort of a reward for that?

    Interestingly, a lot of the people who set up these United States and got it going so it would be fair, were active Believers, trying to make a country that would stand strong. It was never their intent to make Christians into second class citizens. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech.

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  70. I try and take the most optimistic and positive view I can of words that might be open to various interpretations. For example, it might be possible to interpret “as strictly and forcibly as we do” as firm but wholesome discipline or interpret it as tyrannical child abuse. Knowing very little about the reality, I thought it more appropriate to contemplate the reality as something I know very little about.

    It also reminds me of when I taught fourth grade in the ghetto. One child (named Gary) became quite defiant, pretty much destroyig (my already shaky) ability to manage the class. My teaching partner and I made home visits to all the parents of our students. I told Gary’s mom as tactfully as I could about the problem. Up to that point she had been sweet and gracious. After my report, she switched modes in a flash. She said, “Gary! Get in here! Is what Mr. Kahn telling me about your defiance in class true?”

    “Yes’m,” said Gary in a tiny voice.

    Mom continued, “I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I’m giving Mr. Kahn my work number. If there is the slightest trouble, he should call me instantly. I will immediately leave work, come to the school, go into the classroom, take off my belt, and in front of all your pals, pull down your pants and whip your ass. Do you understand me?”

    “Yes’m,” in an even tinier voice.

    It was not the way I raised my child, and not really anything I felt very comfortable with, but in fact, for the rest of the school year, Gary caused me no further problems.

    In fact, the mommies have their style of disciplining granddaughter (a much more difficult child than my daughter ever was) and it’s working well. As far as I can tell, there is no perfect formula for child raising, and every child is different, just to make the task even more difficult. I do strongly dislike the conservative practice of indoctrinating children at the age of 3-5 with religious balderdash, when they are far too young to make intelligent and informed decisions. But, of course, if you believe people are likely to go to Hell after they die, I suppose it’s quite likely to tremble in terror about their fate.

    The atheists I know are much more confident about children raised to think and be informed going on to make intelligent and sensible decisions about belief without tiny tot brainwashing and propagandizing.

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  72. Oh how I hate that song anymore. A few years ago I had to cover a number of union rallies in which this was always played — at full blast.

    Talk about course bravado and obnoxiousness in full display (at decibel levels that could blow out an eardrum … )

    😦 😦 😦

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  73. It is true that all children are unique. It is also true that most if not all children benefit from clear boundaries. We find that our children arrive in fear and frustration with no boundaries. We tighten it up for them so they can clearly see the lines until they learn they are safe. Then we free them up a bit at a time. From what I see, we have some of the happiest, most contented children around. There is very little bickering, a lot of working together, a lot of playing together and we do not hesitate to let the older ones go out for a week or more to help others.

    When we first got our first three six years ago, people were aghast at the energy level. Now, they regularly call on them for service, knowing they will be getting interested, knowledgeable help, without the sullen attitude. The children laugh at their friends who say our children are overly restricted because our children know they enjoy more real freedom than the others. It is neat to see how God has set us up to actually need rules in order to flourish.

    However, my point is: most people, when they hear how we are so controlling take Random’s tack. They think how horrid! The children are wonderful, why would you be so hard on them? The answer: so they can be all they can be.

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