35 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-22-13”

  1. Good Morning all. It is back to real life for me today. I am up and at ’em and headed for work. Lots to catch up on there. Holding and spoiling a sweet Baby Boy made it worthwhile. LShaffer can tell you that he is the most handsome Baby Boy she has seen lately.

    I laughed with her, isn’t this a kick? I have now managed to meet three of you in person! I was so nice spending time with her and she was gracious enough to roam around downtown Annaopolis with us and go in several of the shops.

    Yesterday I suffered from motion sickness on the way home. Eight hours of that isn’t fun. As soon as I got home and walked around on solid ground I was fine.

    I hope you all have a fantastic day!

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  2. QoD. Not me.
    Cheryl and anyone else who uses the area:
    Be advised that US 441 between Cherokee and Gatlinburg is closed. There was a landslide because of rain. Estimated 90,000 cubic yards of rocks and trees over it now.
    US 441 is a two lane road through the Smokies. The slide is 9 miles N of Cherokee, so it may be possible to get through part of the Smokies if Cherokee isn’t a destination.

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  6. I haven’t ever attended the March for Life, and I don’t plan to this year, either. However, some year I would like to do that.

    My mom went to DC for the March for Life in April 1990, six days after my 1st Arrow, her first grandchild, was born. She brought back a little commemorative March T-shirt for him. All my babies have worn it. I should have been deliberate to take a picture of each of them wearing it, but I don’t think I did.

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  7. Mumsee: On my way to the city there is a road named Munsee Rd. Every time I drive past the sign I think of you, so I have decided that I will use that as a reminder to pray for you and your family! (I need reminders such as this)

    Tuesday: laundry, bun baking, floor scraping and maybe a nap! 🙂

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  9. Because of the nature of ministry, the pregnancy counseling center asks us to sign a pledge not to engage in political activity surrounding abortion. For that reason, we don’t usually attend such events. Sometimes I feel tugged, but mostly I let them go and wish the best for all those who do go.

    We position ourselves to be non-partisan and a helping ministry. If some of us engaged in high profile political-related work, that could dillute the confidence our clients have in coming to our center. That’s the explanation.

    I remember this day 40 years ago. I was 16 and the headline in the LA Times covered the top fold. I remember thinking, “Hmm. So what?” and ate my breakfast.

    Little did I know how much abortion would affect the rest of my life.

    It was only two years later that I met someone looking for an abortion–actually it was a friend of a friend. My friend needed someone to go with her and urged me to help, “She can’t help a baby. She’s only 18 and this would ruin her life.”

    I didn’t like the idea and didn’t want to be involved. The girl aborted–and has never had another child.

    We’re all touched by abortion in some way. I didn’t realize how often I had run up against it until I wrote an article for a local pregnancy counseling center and titled it “Abortions in my Life.” I’d forgotten about writing it and was absolutely shocked when I opened the newsletter, saw the title and realized I had written it.

    But it’s true–I may not have participated or had an abortion, but people close to me have. Sometimes I have passively condoned it when I didn’t speak up (38 years ago). I’ve lived with the effects of it on people I love. I’ve seen the destruction an abortion has wreaked on the fathers, the grandparents, the siblings, and the women themselves.

    But abortion is a forgiveable sin. Jesus’ death on the cross was on behalf of those who made a grim choice–particularly for those who regretted that choice, often almost immediately.

    We need to love those who have aborted and we need to love those with grisly hands today. We’re all sinners in need of a Savior and He who is love incarnate, will not hold back his forgiveness from anyone.

    We should do the same.

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  11. Did you see the back and forth between Prince Harry and the Taliban?

    Prince Harry says, yes, he has killed Taliban. And you take a life to save a life.

    The Taliban says Harry has a mental problem. 🙂

    I guess I have one too.

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  12. Michelle: One of the signs I carried in a march had the words: “Abortion is Forgivable” and a reference to a scripture verse.

    I stopped wearing a pro-life button when I realized it was an impediment to some people for the conversations that were important. People need to seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit on what they do on this and every other ‘issue’. We all have our own walk. John the Baptist was ultimately killed for pointing out Herod’s sin and the need for repentance. We don’t see a place where Jesus spoke about it. Each came for a different purpose. We are not all called to do the same thing either or to approach everything the same.

    Standing against evil takes many different forms in many different degrees.

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  15. One of my favorite authors, Randy Alcorn, tells how picketing abortion clinics has affected his ministry. A number of years ago, he was involved in nonviolent picketing of centers and was jailed a number of times for it. He ended up being one of several who were sued by the abortion folk. The abortion people won an eight million dollar lawsuit against them. Because he was a pastor, the court was going to have his church pay the money. He resigned as a pastor and started Eternal Perspective ministries. What man wanted for evil (a church to financially support abortion) God used for good. Alcorn has become content with little (a minimum wage job and none of the profits from his books) and a lot of people are learning a lot of things about their perspective on God.

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  17. I’m (barely) keeping up (mostly) with my Bible reading. How’s that for hedging? 🙂 But I really am still plugging along.

    Some days are tough, like yesterday with the late (and, ahem, ludicrous in my opinion) assignment I was given. Then I whacked my head on some lumber during the dog walk. But that’s another story. And it actually was a fitting end to the day I’d had.

    But God finds his way with me. I awakened at 1:30 a.m. this morning, completely unable to get back to sleep. So I picked up the Bible I keep on the night table and read the couple chapters in Acts so now I’m caught up (again) with the NT portions of my daily readings.

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  20. Kare, I’m on track. I skipped one day (a Sunday) and didn’t realize it until I went to read the next day, so I read two days’ worth that day (in two sittings) and caught back up.

    I’ve never participated in a March for Life, I don’t think. I say I don’t think because I have a fuzzy sense that it was some such event that got me on TV when I was really little. Mom was 45 when she gave birth to the last of us, giving her an infant, a 22-month-old, and a 38-month-old, as well as four boys ten to seventeen. Anyway, at some such rally, the camera zeroed in on the woman with the double stroller. If it was me and my sister, then it was before Roe v Wade; if it was my brother and sister and me walking, then it would have been after. I think it was me and my sister, but I don’t remember the details.

    I have, however, participated in 40 days of prayer and done some volunteer work (not counseling) at two pregnancy centers.

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  21. Did you notice how I waited until I got caught up before I asked about anyone else’s Bible reading?

    I haven’t read any Alcorn for several years, but hubby and I both loved the books we read back then. And admired his putting his money where his mouth is.

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  24. Michelle, years ago I read a story (I think in Focus of the Family) of a woman who was dscovered to have some medically inexplainable condition, and also discovered to be pregnant. They weren’t sure what to do with her medically, but they urged her to abort in order to give them more choices in treatment. She chose not to, though she believed the choice to be her death sentence. Instead, the baby in her womb rearranged her body in such a way as to handle the problem the doctors hadn’t known how to fix. Her baby actually brought life. Two lives.

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  26. That happened to a friend of mine, too, Cheryl. She had a tumor on her pituitary gland. The doctor refused to treat her if she didn’t abort. She went to a different doctor. The baby had a very strange placenta, but was healthy. The pregnancy shrunk the tumor and my friend never had a problem again.

    That baby, by the way, is now working on her Phd in nuclear engineering. 🙂

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  27. 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦
    My husband has my vehicle because his has been in the shop for two weeks. I had to stay home today because I couldn’t find a ride to work and there was no rental car available. I have a rental car reserved for tomorrow morning, but …

    My husband just called to say he was on his way home. Then he called two minutes later to say my vehicle broke down, and he had called a tow truck. He’s afraid it’s the transmission.

    Now we have to find a mechanic who can work on it and won’t take two or three weeks like it has been with my husband’s truck. And somehow find a way to pay for it – assuming it isn’t something so major that it’s not worth fixing.

    And I guess now my husband has to get a rental car also. If there’s another one available…

    This is the lousiest day I’ve had in a long time. I tried a few times to stop feeling so negative and remind myself that God must have a reason for all this and that somehow things will work out. The best I managed was to feel a little bit hopeful for a minute or two.

    And then this. (Oh, I didn’t mention that when my husband tried to call me about the breakdown, the phone wouldn’t work so he yelled at me on the answering machine for not picking up. When he called my cell phone, I pointed out that I told him yesterday the home phone was acting up and he said it didn’t matter, we only use it to screen calls and take messages. I was busy looking at prices of phones when he called.)

    If I were inclined to scream, or drink, I probably would about now. At one point, I might have wanted to find something fattening to eat. But I trained myself not to want to eat that way. I suppose I’ll try to read a book to get my mind off this. But it’s not going to work.

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  28. Mr. Brown came through surgery OK. They did have to remove quite a bit of his colon and now he will have a colostomy. He is a little upset about that but as his son and I discussed he didn’t have one for 88 years and this bought him a few more years for his family to love him–maybe–none of us really know the number of our days.

    Thank you for praying with me today. He is a dear, dear old gentleman and I am going to be sad to see him go when the time comes.

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  31. My husband talked to someone who is willing to loan us some money at 5% interest. Now if he gets some more substitute teaching assignments – and if he has a working vehicle to get to the school, we should be able to make the loan payments.

    And maybe someday we’ll actually be able to save up money towards buying the next vehicle, when one of these can’t be fixed (for a reasonable amount).

    I remembered that I also have some stock I purchased from the company I used to work for. I had forgotten about it because I thought of it in the same category as my 401k, money that was taken out by payroll deduction and I never saw it except on quarterly statements. But unlike 401k, there’s no penalty for using it – just a matter of whether the stock is at a good price right now or not.

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  32. My daughter and I both are emotionally wrung out. I sent her a copy of my blog. She didn’t know the story and called in tears on the phone. I’m mortified. I know I told her this story. She read my memoir, but she says she didn’t know any of it.

    The lot of a writer. Would you pray the blessings resonate in her heart and she remembers the things God did in my life to ensure her life? She kept saying, “I could have killed you.”

    I kept saying, “this was about me and God. You were the blessed gift.”

    She has a presentation tomorrow, of course. I’m chagrined. Next time I’ll do something different.

    I hope.

    Very sorry for these trials, Pauline.

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  35. Pauline. Just want you to know that we are praying for you. I have been where you are, and it is no fun. God is still good all the time.

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