58 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-23-13”

  3. How do we know that was really you? 😯

    🙂

    I’m kidding. So is it absolutely freezing in your part of Pa. too? I went out to warm my wife’s car for her and I think with the wind chill it’s gotta be below zero. Brrrrrr.

    😦

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  4. It’s 19.6 in Hendersonville. We had a mild December and I thought we might have a mild winter like last year. They say the east will be cold for another month or so.

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  5. hmmmm I missed the cold weather . I had another Facebook exchange with Mr P’ s middle son last night . I told him when I married his father I made a decision to love him but I did have boundaries and he could not take swipes at me . He said he wasn’t 12 He is almost 25 and he didn’t need me treating him like a kid and he didn’t need me to love him . I pointed out that was a swipe and to me he was a kid. He ended up telling me he is headed back to Afghanistan for another year . We ended the conversation with me calling him a s not nosed brat and asking if that made him more comfortable . Mr P has taken t o calling him MY son and asking me Have you heard from your son lately?” He breaks my heart because he was old enough to remember his mother and that she chose something else over him . My mother a bottle of Canadian Mist over me . I did ask him again to come see us before he is deployed . I can probably swing a ticket for him to come here for less than I can haul all of us to him .

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  6. The Real – it’s -20F here today. And the plug wasn’t working on the block heater. Thankfully my husband noticed when he let the dog out first thing and made sure it was turned back on. Hopefully it starts with only 2 hours of warming time.

    Ha, I bet half of you don’t even know what a block heater is!! 🙂

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  8. Good Morning all….the Lord has given to us a glorious sunrise this morning and here in Colorado we are expected to break our record high with a temp of 69. Normally I would love it, but, we truly need moisture and I would take it in any form, rain, sleet, hail or snow! We still have snow back in our meadow, but I expect it will melt today!
    Have a blessed day everyone 🙂

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  11. I’m taking a wild guess here but an engine has a block so I am thinking a block heater heats the engine so it will start in cold weather????

    Many years ago when I drove a 5 speed Prelude and lived in Maryland I learned to stick a screwdriver somewhere under the hood, start the car, get out, remove the screwdriver, and go about my business until I could get the car into the shop and have the alternator adjusted.

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  13. We had highs in the teens the last couple of days. Though Nashville occasionally got into single digits or even sub-zero, those would be overnight lows, and this week with the cold weather and the wind has probably been the coldest I’ve experienced since I left Chicago nearly a decade ago. Of course, I’m 20 pounds heavier than I was then, and I work from my home so I don’t have to go out in it every day, plus I have a husband to keep me warm. But I’d still rather fast-forward to warm weather.

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  14. I have never used one, but my understanding is that block heater is a heating rod that you place in the engine where the dipstick was. It heats the oil. The oil is the only part of the engine that really need heating. Nothing else cares what the temperature is.

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  15. I saw 6 Arrows link after I posted. Wocopedia says it heats coolant. I don’t see how heating the coolant helps unless it circulates. It doesn’t circulate until the engine is running. The only heaters I’ve seen heat the oil.
    In days you don’t remember, we had water in the radiators. It was either drained or added antifreeze in freezing weather. Nowdays, coolant is used year around and nobody worries about freezing radiators.

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  16. Not sure how cold it is here in the Atlanta area. I just know it is cold.

    I have a few more days home with our son before getting back to the heavy duty days of tax season. We have a new scanner system at the office I have to learn how to use.

    My husband and I got together on Sunday with our friend whose wife died a few months ago. I was under the impression that they were not Christians. He did say they believed that they would see each other again so this separation is only temporary while he is alive. But that belief is not based on true Christianity. So my question is, in such situations how do you approach trying to engage in discussion of Christianity knowing that if the person truly comes to saving faith it means they must admit they may not see their loved one in heaven? I am really troubled by this not only for this friend, but I have the same issue with others. I know I will not approach the subject of where the loved one may be. Just wondered if anyone else here has had to deal with this touchy kind of situation and how you handled it.

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  19. Still well below freezing here (10 degrees F with wind chill factor), but the severe cold warning was lifted. (Yesterday some schools had late opening just because they had trouble starting their busses.)

    I got a rental car, and even though I only reserved it for today, they said I can extend it rather than having to return it tonight. So I’ll probably be driving it through Friday. My husband’s truck is supposed to be ready Saturday.

    He checked with the shop where he had my car towed last night (recommended by three people at church), and found out the owner is in the hospital, and the office manager (his wife) is there with him. So it may be a while before we get any word on what’s wrong with my car.

    I forced myself to use my CPAP machine last night – I gave up on it when I got sick a few months ago and was having trouble sleeping due to acid reflux (and fleas). The last three times I tried to use it, I lay awake an hour until I gave up on it, and went to sleep without it. Last night I got to sleep OK, woke up a few times, but made it through the night and felt pretty good when the alarm woke me.

    I spent my drive in this morning telling God how frustrated I was about the car and money situation. I had prayed for Him to provide after the transmission went on my husband’s vehicle in December, and what happened? The transfer case goes too. I prayed for Him to provide with this new problem, and what happens? My car breaks down. I’m asking Him to provide now, and don’t want to think about what’s going to happen next.

    I’ve been reading a book on prayer for a Bible study I’m leading, and this week’s chapter is on unanswered prayer. Very relevant, but I really didn’t want such a clear example of it. I was tempted to cancel tonight’s study, with the excuse that I wasn’t sure I’d have a vehicle to drive to church. But I didn’t, and I do have the rental car.

    One answer to prayer I do have – I’ve been asking for a long time for a walking partner. This morning, a co-worker asked if I was still looking for someone to walk with at lunchtime (I had mentioned it at a dept meeting when I first started). It’s too cold to walk outside, but the college has a track and a fitness center (free to employees), so we’ll walk inside today.

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  22. One of the fifteen year olds is off to have his wisdom teeth removed. To get there, the truck did not start, the Subaru did not start, the monster truck did start but stalled and would not restart. They put the Subaru on the charger and got it going.

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  23. I know what a block heater is, as I never would have been able to drive my old 84 VW Rabbit Diesel without one in the winter.

    Chas- the coolant heaters do keep the block warm enough by circulating the coolant. I had one in a gasoline car once, as that made it so the heater would blow warm air right away and save the battery when cranking in cold weather. A mechanic said not to use the oil heater as then one would have to change the oil more frequently. And now with multi-viscosity oils, there is no need for one in the oil.

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  25. I just read the opening chapter of Hugh Ross’s Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job, wherein he discussed how he was warned about getting too involved with Job. In the course of writing the book, both his father and father-in-law died, his son was nearly killed and he nearly died twice himself. Shocking, but he persevered and the book, of course, was a comfort.

    I hadn’t heard that before, and now I’m teaching Job (but only for six more weeks!). I think Pauline gets the credit far more than me for trials and tribulations. Praying it all resolves. If I lived closer you could borrow my car . . . .

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  26. We used to never buy a car without insisting on a block heater. My husband had a place to plug it in when he was at work. Our latest car does not have one. That means if we are going to be somewhere for many, many hours when it is really cold, like the past few days, someone will have to start the car and let it run for awhile.

    My husband used to have to do that when we had an apartment. He does not miss the days of going out into the middle of the night and driving around the block a few times every few hours to make sure the car will start to get to work in time. Pauline, your comments remind me of those days. It is a very frustrating place to be and my heart and prayers go out to and for you.

    We are having a heat wave of 0 degrees. It is windy, though, and I prefer to watch the beauty of winter from a nice warm home right now.

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  27. Hard to enter in to the conversation when I got back from 85 degree Mexico to 75 degreee So Cal. I am leaving tomorrow for Boise–cold comfort that–so I’ll wait to post how cold it is when I get there 😉

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  31. My husband was looking through a book of music (for the piano) and he and I were both laughing at the tile, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” He was sitting on the piano bench, and I put my arm around him and whispered in his ear (with a kiss every word or two), “Honey, I’ve gotten used to living with you.” I mean, seriously. . . .

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  34. MIM, I doubt there is much to see in High Point. I have been by there dozens of tmes on I-40 and never stopped except for lunch and let Elvera visit the mall.
    It’s still a big furniture town. They have big showrooms.

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  36. Not much to see in the furniture capital of the world? Chas, you must be joking… 😉
    I keep trying to get my wife to come with me, but no luck so far.

    I’ll be there for a manufacturing symposium, so at least there’s some big machinery to see.

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  41. Our block heater heats the oil in the oil pan (not down where the dipstick goes). Our last vehicle heated the coolant.

    Oh and we’re supposed to get 6 inches of snow over night and tomorrow. May not be able to get into work. 🙂

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  44. I know, 6 arrows. It’s a pro-abort version of Fred Phelps dressed up in a dinner jacket, sipping wine.

    And they title the clip “Happy Anniversary, Baby.” They don’t even care that they invoke the image of a child in their clever little joke. Absolutely sick. Say all you want about the economy and rights as reason to discuss secession (even if just theoretically, or whatever). But this garbage is the worst of it all, undergirded by our nation’s laws, supported by half the populace. Sick.

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  52. Janice, your question from 10:19:09.

    …how do you approach trying to engage in discussion of Christianity knowing that if the person truly comes to saving faith it means they must admit they may not see their loved one in heaven?

    I remember hearing from someone whose friend had come to Christ. It was at that point that the friend had to come to grips with the knowledge that his brother who had died sometime before that had probably been lost at the time of his death.

    I wouldn’t know what to say in a case like that. I agree that I wouldn’t bring up the topic of where any certain deceased person may be spending eternity. But I think it’s important to remember that we can’t see a person’s heart, but God can. It’s possible that there could have been some spark of faith whose fruits were not displayed at a time or place that we would have witnessed them. Does that make sense? God can see saving faith, and we can rest in that knowledge.

    Janice, I would witness to your friend without worry about how his learning the truths of Christianity may bring earthly challenges (worrying about his wife’s salvation, for example). That is in the Lord’s hands; God will help your friend through any and all trials related to his faith. We, as followers of Christ, have an obligation to speak truth lovingly. Pray for wisdom in how to best use the opportunities that come up to witness to this friend, and leave the rest to God, Who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

    I’ll pray for you, Janice. Blessings.

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  53. Oh, there you are, Donna! I was taking forever typing my comment to Janice, and doing the kids’ bedtime routines, and this and that and the other thing…

    Hope you’re alright after smacking into that board the other night.

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  55. I remember my former pastor saying (after the death of someone who was a relative of someone in the church, but not a member herself) that we should “cling to” the evidences of faith the deceased showed in their lives for our comfort and hope.

    In other words, we don’t know anyone’s eternal state, and there is always a glimmer of hope we can retain for even those who did not associate with the church or show much interest in spiritual things.

    And we need to also remember that it is God who does the choosing and saving, not us (since we’d never choose him of our own accord). Salvation is of God, it’s up to a person’s “decision” or “goodness,” which frankly is such a comfort to me.

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  57. And, yes, I did survive the whack across the forehead after running into the lumber beam the other night. 😉 But ouch. It’s still sore.

    Surviving work this week has been another story — today’s “early” shift also turned into a rather “late” shift.

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  58. Boy, I’ll bet that hurt, and could leave a mark, too.

    Days that are early and late are brutal. Wednesday is my husband’s long day, and today he couldn’t get there as early as he planned (he doesn’t have a specific time that he HAS to start, just a general time). He and 1st Arrow went to buy a truck today, to replace the truck that got totaled last month while it was parked on a street near the building where 1st Arrow was attending a work meeting. They got a good deal on the truck, but the owner lived an hour away from us, and they had to wait for him to get off work, so that put my husband’s getting-to-work time later. So he will probably have a long night tonight. I’m guessing he won’t be home until after daylight sometime.

    These hours are getting pretty old, and I’m not the one that has to work them. 😦

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