68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-15-12”

  4. Oops! Not first, third! I’m a hunting widow again this weekend. Hubby left early this morning for the Texas Hill Country with a bunch of his buddies. I pick up Becca at 10:00 from her first slumber party last night. Then tonight we are going to my brother Matt’s house for a Christmas party. Today I’ll be taking the girls Christmas shopping. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

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  5. FBC Hendersonville is a large church. The physical plant takes up a city blick, given the Weeschool and other things that go on there.
    If you try to enter a door during the week, you find it locked. You have to push a button which alerts a security guy who views you on a screen and asks your destination and purpose before he releases the lock.
    Unfortunately, on Sunday mornings, when the church is most crowded, it is most vulnerable.

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  6. Chas, I’ve heard of a city block, but what is a blick? Is that a large portion of a city block?

    Today, D3 and I are taking some old bicycles to donate for the Salvation Army to give away. A car dealership is accepting them and fixing them up. Then they will be given to poor children.

    After that, we’re going to see “The Hobbit”, I for the first time, she for the second.

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  7. Chas, you have a very handsome church facility (I looked it up on the web).

    I saw some lengthy previews of The Hobbit at the theater in the past few weeks, looks intriguing with good effects (although since I’ve not read the book it isn’t high on my list to see — saw one review that said it was a bit long). Tell us what you think.

    Love the bicycle program, what a great thing. For a kid, there’s nothing quite like waking up on Christmas morning to find a shiny bike sitting next to the tree. It’s one of those “wow” surprise gifts that they’ll always remember. 🙂

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  8. A blick is a block plus a little more. Actually, we have two buildings that are not part of the structure. One of them, Crosswalk, the youth building, requires a sign-in before entrance.

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  10. Good Morning all….
    I looked up your church Chas…it looks just like Erlanger Baptist Church in KY…the sanctuary appears as a carbon copy of Erlanger! Beautiful.

    The Hobbit was seen by me..and Paul and Hannah at 12:05 AM Friday morn…what was I thinking!? Well…we didn’t want Hannah out driving at 3AM..so we decided to go with her and her group of friends…but really…we sat three rows from the front…5 hours in the seat with my neck tilted backwards…we arrived home at 4AM….I was a waste yesterday…migraine and a sore back…I’ll leave those sorts of activities for the young from now on! From what I can recall…the Hobbit was a good movie…the battle scenes a bit much for me though…

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  12. Yep…5 hours…we had to arrive two hours before the showing to get a seat…alas, our seats were three rows from the front! The showing lasted 3 hours…a half hour contributed to trailers and advertisements!

    I miss sitting in pews too! There is just something about entering a sanctuary, pews and hymnals that warms my soul….old tradition I suppose… 🙂

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  13. We’re going today after the boys all went last night and we babysat. Stargazer isn’t all that keen about seeing it a second time with his sister and after yesterday’s events I don’t want to watch violence, so he and I may go see Lincoln instead.

    Yes, I see the irony in that. I prefer conversation, ideas and personality in movies anyway.

    Now to convince my husband such a choice would not be sacrilege

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  14. Well, nothing much. Husband took the older ones to their Christmas play last night and then off to Boise for a football game that nobody goes to so the tickets are cheap. That just leaves us here to do the chores and the Saturday house cleaning and the this and that. Good thing the five year old is a hard worker because the other two are a bit lax. Well the eleven year old is a hard worker, he just does not care for direction. We are working on that.

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  18. Kim – never post that song again! Worst Christmas song ever!! 🙂
    Today’s the day of our potluck – just woke up and I am so excited to start decorating – it’s been a long time. I hope tonight will be a blessing for our whole small group.

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  19. Mumsee, #15. We went to see every performance Chuck was in.
    Kay: go to Youtube and highlight and copy the address at the top. Come to the blog and paste it.
    WARNING: do not do that if you got the Youtube link in an e-mail. It will be a link to your in box.

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  20. Kay, I think just copying and pasting the url (address at the top) works — or maybe what’s called the embed code, I haven’t done it for this site in a while. But if you hit the “share” button under the youtube video, it should let you copy both the link and the embed code.

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  21. Just a quiet day here. Yesterday, however, I went on a buying spree for our Christmas bash. 300 pounds of sugar, 200 pounds of rice, 40 Liters of cooking oil, 400 packets of green tea, 72 cans of evaporated milk, 300 small packages of cookies, 1800 pieces of candy. The MKs (and Phos too) are busily bagging the sugar into one cup and one kilo portions and dividing up the candy, cookies and tea into 300 gift bags. They are also copying 300 cassettes of Wolof sermons which will also be in the gift bags. The big bash is Thursday. You’re all invited! If you can’t come, please pray! 🙂

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  22. Kay,

    While you have the video up, put your cursor on the video and right click. The top choice will be “copy video URL”, click that. Then go to where you want to post it, right click again and select paste. You’re done, it will look like a link, but when you post it, the video shows in a box like mine and Kim’s above. You can copy and paste from the address bar, but it doesn’t always post the video, just a link sometimes. The first way works best.

    Give it a try.

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  27. I used to attend those things. Then I started to wonder why. Then I came up with a reason not to go. They often start half an hour after my small people are in bed. But as I thought about it, I realized that I spend approximately eight hours each day directly interacting with the children. They choose their extracurricular activities and a lot of them are just plain boring to me. I don’t watch football or basketball for example though I will go to baseball or tennis. I have gone to concerts, though I won’t be going this time. At my advanced age, I have decided I can pick and choose what I attend. And none of them are hurt by it, I think. But I don’t know if I am just making excuses for myself.

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  28. Mumsee, Yes, but like you there are some I like better than others. I love watching little league baseball, but not football,with the pads and helmets it’s just too hard to see who’s doing what. Basketball is somewhere in the middle. The Christmas program at the school is usually awful and the Kid never does anything but stand in the choir and look bored, Since it is usually very short I can deal. He did have a guitar solo at the Wednesday morning assembly last week. It was about what you would expect from a nine year who has been playing for two months.

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  30. Question about YouTube. Do any of youbelong? What is the downside of registering. It appears that if I view/listen to a song, the count of viewers doesn’t go up. Is that because I’m not a member?
    Other than that, and the ability to say I like something, is there a reason for joining? I’m interested in how YouTube and WordPress get their money.

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  31. Chas,

    YouTube-advertising. Big time. They’re everywhere.

    Registering lets you favorite stuff and add it to your account. You can set up playlists for specific songs or topics. Mine has over 300 song video’s, both homemade to popular songs as well as artist approved “Official” band vids. I have everything from Pavarotti and Marty Robbins to Queensryche, August Burns Red, even some hippy stuff. You can find cute fuzzy animals video, faceplants, whatever, and save it. You can post your own video as well. It totally rocks. That’s why it’s users put up with the advertising.

    WordPress-some advertising, some on blog upgrades from users.

    I chose not to have advertising, but from time to time WordPress inserts some to cover the cost of this free blog. I’m upgrading for the New Year, and by doing so, will eliminate all ads, get a .com as well, plus other new features and additional “background” choices. Video upgrade as well. I’m also researching the plugins for spell check and the preview feature. I’m pretty excited. I love WordPress too.

    🙂

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  33. Mumsee @32- Do you recommend that book?

    As for attending things, only our son did anything- baseball. One year he played for the high school team on JV. That high school charged admission to the games, so we bought a season pass (cheaper than paying for every game). I was in grad school and extra money was not easy to come by.I felt like we wasted our money because he only got to play in one or two games (away games at that!). The coach was all for keeping his almost perfect win record, rather than letting all the boys get field experience. I mean, isn’t JV meant for gaining experience? Even when the game was a sure win he kept the starters in.

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  34. How far will you go in trusting God? Are you willing to be the subject of rumors? Are you willing to have your Creditability question? Are you willing to have your character question? How far will you go in trusting God?

    Matthew 1: 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
    22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
    24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

    1. Are you willing to be the subject of rumors?
    Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
    In the Jewish time unlike today it was not acceptable to sleep with the lady before you were married. By Mary being found with Child 3 things would in the mine of the people in the town.
    1. She was rapes
    2. She sleep with another man.
    3. She sleep with Joseph.
    Joseph knew that one of these 2 must have happen this is why the Word of God stated Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. What this means is he was going not going to marry her but he was going to do it private. God had other plains.
    What does this mean to us? That may time people will not understand why we choice to follow Christ and His plains for us. The it opens the door for rumors to take place, but we should not worry about the rumors and what other think, but focus on what God wants and What He thinks.

    2. Are you willing to have your Creditability question?
    21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
    22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
    In Jewish time Creditability was very important, and Joseph line of work it was really important. If the person creditability was in question people would not come to them and ask them to make something for them. By Joseph marring Mary and raising Jesus this would bring into question Joseph creditability. He had to make a decision do I follow God or do I protect my creditability? What does this mean for us?
    When we come to Christ and we make a decision about following God’s Word it means we must step out and trust Him and not worry about those who may question our creditability.

    3. Are you willing to have your character question?
    24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.
    The moment Joseph said yes to God. It open the door for man in his wickedness to question Joseph character. Joseph, you must have sleep with marry, why else is she having a baby. Joseph, she must have been unfaithful, why else is she having a baby. Yes, the moment Joseph said yes, it open the door for the enemy to come in an influence people to question his Character. Joseph decide to follow God’s direction and not worry about how people view his characters.
    What does this mean for us?
    When we decide to follow God, people will question us, why because they do not want us to follow God and change. They want us to stay the same. We like Joseph must decide what is more important following God or protection our character.

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  36. Adenda 21: it was a quick easy fun novel read. I used to read a great deal of Isaac Asimov so it fit right along with that. It also fits along with what I see here in Idaho as far as setting aside land to go back to wilderness, driving the rural folk into cities. Some would call it silly. I think we are headed that way. Call me silly.

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  42. Below are comments posted tonight by a FB friend, an attorney; thoughts? I can hear myself saying the same thing many years ago; it was only through God’s move in my salvation that my eyes were opened to see (if not always to perceive or understand) that somehow this was part of His Providence:

    “One nation, under God ….”

    Really?

    What kind of God let’s little kids get murdered?

    Is there some other god out there that can do better?

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  44. I was in a Bible study once by Kay Arthur–When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It was at least 13 or 14 years ago so I can’t remember all of it, but the gist was that God doesn’t do bad things to people. It comes from our fallen, sinful natures, The Devil will try us and use bad things to make us question God. God will use the bad things for His good. We may not understand at the time, but if we trust in God things will work out for His Glory.
    It is very hard to understand what happened in Connecticut on Friday. I don’t even pretend to understand and wrap my brain around it.

    Perhaps it is time for all of us to revisit the Book of Job followed by Habbakkuk.

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  45. Thanks AJ, #31. after my tryst with Facebook, I have been reluctant to sign onto something free. I may geive it a try. I have some music, e.g. Girls of the Golden west, that isn’t on YouTube.

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  46. I think I’ll put Agenda 21 on my reading list. I need something light right now.
    I’m reading Killing Kennedy by O’Rilley now. An interesting book. I’ve learned things.

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  48. Today was the 3rd Sunday in Advent so the scripture was already chosen before Friday, December 14. We live in a fallen world, by grace are we saved. It isn’t a one time event. God knows we will continue to sin and offers us repentence time after time. Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ WILL come again.

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  49. Just came in from a glorious snowshoe hike! Found several potential Christmas trees less than a mile from our house, enjoyed the beautiful hoar frost and sunshine. There is still so much beauty in this fallen world.

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  50. Ah, Kare2012, that sounds beautiful! We have cloudy skies and sprinkles today, more rain on the way. Wonder if I should take the dogs to the dog beach again? They did really like that and there’s nothing quite like being at the beach on a chilly day in December.

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  51. Chas, Glenn Beck with Harriet Parke. Not a Glenn Beck endorsement, I don’t listen to him or watch him or whatever people do. But it was a quick easy read, similar in some ways to The Hunger Games and Isaac Asimov. And I would not be surprised…..

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  53. Didn’t see any wolves, but they were probably within a few miles of us. No tracks of wolves either, just deer and smaller animals and a few spots where an owl had grabbed a rodent.

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  54. I am told that anytime we go out to the woods for any length of time, we are probably shadowed by a mountain lion. I can believe that. They know what is going on in their territories.

    We watched golden eagles soaring today, while driving on the grade. Well, I was driving, the small ones were watching. Pretty neat to see. Even when they are circling our chicken yard and climbing up.

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  55. I would love to see a mountain lion – but not while I’m out hiking!! Hubby saw the first one where he used to work. He was on snowmobile doing the final sweep after a cross country ski race when it ran across the trail in front of him. Good thing there were no stragglers 🙂

    We do have lynx close by to us as well, but no tracks of them either.

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  58. I can’t imagine parenting a child with some of these issues, though I’m guessing Mumsee has a sense of what it’s like at times. So difficult, and so heart-rending for the parents who love them — but fear them & what may become of them.

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  59. Concerning the troubled thirteen: I recommend Dandelion on My Pillow, Butcher Knife Beneath. It is the story of several RAD children and how they were helped or not. They tend to be peachy keen nice and sweet when they want and you don’t want to turn your back on them ever.

    Not to second guess her in anyway, it is not my child, but there is no way we would put a child like that in a school situation or allow any electronic devices. They cannot handle the stimulation. I understand the insurance issue. We moved our “Aspberger’s bipolar, schizophrenic” child out of that situation as soon as we thought she could handle another change. It was required she be there as a foster child. She is much more balanced now. Same with the other “autistic” children. Our children are doing very well right now. We don’t know what the future holds but we are trying hard to see that they have the tools and the paper trail to get help if needed.

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  60. What I cannot understand about the killer’s mom is, if she knew she had a troubled child, why would she take him out shooting semi-automatic weapons at a range? If you had a troubled child in your house, would you keep a gun in your house, much less a semi-automatic?

    We’ll never know, of course, and the article Donna linked (which I’ve linked on FB) pointed out the trials parents go through with such a kid. But, it seems to me common sense would dictate you would remove anything that threatens someone else with bodily harm.

    Perhaps she shot with her son because that’s the only thing he was interested in. But, really, what good could she possibly have imagined would come from that?

    My sister-in-law was the long-time babysitter for one of the victim’s fathers. Her brother was a janitor at the elementary school many years ago. That end of my family is a wreck this weekend, as you can imagine. 😦

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  61. Michelle, we can’t know, of course, but perhaps she took him shooting as a confidence builder. We do that. Perhaps she kept them locked up in a safe and something went wrong. With some children, you would not keep a knife or a pencil or a car or a gas lawn mower or anything. A pretty barren existence. She made her choices and it did not work, for her or for him. Or for a whole lot of other folk.

    My concern is that there are a lot of these children out there. It seems to be more than in the past or they were handled differently. Were they all locked up? Something kept them from access to weapons and people or gave them the strategies to not succumb to the little voices. I can imagine more and more of these tragedies as more and more of these children enter into the real world.

    I have had harmless crazy in my family tree. Well, shoplifting, not exactly harmless but not life taking. But she could have gone there, why didn’t she? She wandered the country, dropping in on relatives. We have a growing problem under our noses and need to deal with it. Taking away the guns is not the answer, though it might be a temporary fix.

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  62. A lot of us on here raise our children with the hope that they will become believers but we know it is a thing between them and God, we really don’t have any say. Most people do not raise their children to be mass murderers, most would never imagine it as a possibility. But apparently, as we have seen over the years, it does happen.

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  63. What is also frightening is that there aren’t a lot of options for these families when things go increasingly wrong. I remember the family who adopted a RAD kid from Russia, and — when there was nothing more she could do and she feared for her life — the mother turned him back in. She was excoriated by everyone, but who can really understand fearing for one’s life and the lives of the other children?

    And, as the article pointed out, the only real option that people are giving parents of the worst of these kids is “hope that he gets arrested” because then he’ll be the State’s problem???

    How is is a life when you have to teach your other children to run to the car and lock themselves in when he has an “episode?”

    I know that some of them could be helped with intensive therapy and people like Mumsee. But, there are some who you must wonder if they aren’t possessed in the old-fashioned Biblical sense.

    And, what will this mother do when her 13-year-old goes through puberty and becomes stronger, bigger, and taller than she is??

    What a horrible situation! And, I don’t know what the answer is.

    I also wonder why we have more of these types of children, as Mumsee points out. What did we do in the past? And, why are we being so “successful” at turning out sociopaths?

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  64. It is a dilemma — one that probably isn’t going to be ultimately “fixed,” per se. But surely once we pass this intense period of grieving there can be a discussion begun. And hopefully one that doesn’t focus solely on guns or any other rather simplistic/knee-jerk response, but one that takes into account many of the causes that may be at work.

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  65. Tammy, that is not such an unusual situation, just happens to be the one we hear about. I don’t know many adoptees, we don’t do support groups, but I am aware of two situations where the parents are scared of the children but there is no help available. In our own family, one child was basically set out at twelve as his family did not know what to do with him and the agency said, not our problem. It turned out very well for him and for us, but who knows about the many others in the same or similar scenario.

    But a lot of birth families have similar issues and it is beyond frightening to think of the future if we don’t get a handle on it.

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  66. This brings two things to mind. My son has anger issues. When he has his fits I try to stay calm and I do not to reward the behavior in anyway other than that I am at my wits end. Some of the fits are so illogical. I shared with some on here that my husband took away his Christmas present this year and has been going back and forth on sticking with it. So far he is sticking with it. At the moment I think he is doing the right thing, but sometimes I suspect we could be one mistake away from ending up like this lady.
    The second thing I think about is my sister. My parents were not perfect but they were good people who loved us and did everything they were expected to do for their children at that time. My brothers and I are good, productive, law abiding citizens. My sister put my mother through hell. My father had died by the time of the worse of it. My mother did not deserve what she was put through. In the end I blame my sister and my sister alone. She freely chose bad friends and she freely chose to listen to them instead of her family and she freely chose to put crap in her mind and in her body. She had free will and she used it badly.She had free will and she used it badly.

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  67. KBells, I suspect it takes more than one mistake but ultimately, your son is responsible for his actions. Your job is to prepare him to the best of your abilities. Nobody should ask for more.

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  68. The problem with rearing children is that they don’t come with an owner’s manual. And, just when you think you’ve got it down, you will get kid number 2 or 3, and they are totally different than kid #1. 😉

    Many of us (parents) are terribly hard on ourselves. We want to be perfect and have the perfect kid(s), and it just isn’t possible. No one does everything right.

    We need to do the best we can, and cover the rest in prayer!

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