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Our Daily Thread 3-22-13

Good Morning!

It’s Finally Friday! 🙂

We’re taking our annual trip to the Reading Pet Expo today.  🙂

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On this day in 1457  The Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.

In 1903 Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.

And in 1954 the first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.

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Quote of the Day

“To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.”

Louis  L’Amour

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Who has a QoD?

72 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-22-13”

  1. Good Morning!
    IT’S FRIDAY! You know what that means?
    Not much for me. Sameol, sameol.
    😦 I was in earlier checking mail and yesterday’s posts.
    Then, I decided to go into the kitchen to get my glasses because I knew that’s where I left them. But I stopped by the bathroom on the way. While I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror.
    I was wearing them.
    If you think that’s funny, wait until you reach eighty. You don’t lose your mind all of a sudden, it’s a gradual process.
    And it ain’t funny.
    Off to the Y as soon as ol’ slowpoke gets ready.

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  3. “Off to the Reading Pet Expo” If you have only had a couple of sips of your coffee this can be quite the puzzling statement. So….How DO they teach those pets to read?
    It is Friday! and so begins Holy Week. We will be doing things a little differently this coming week at church. We will begin the process of Stripping the Alter on Palm Sunday instead of waiting until Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday is more symbolic of The (original) Last Supper. We will probably have it outside under the pavillion and it will include a Foot Washing. (See if I could just copy and paste this I might have a good start to recording the minutes of the last vestry meeting)

    I have never attended a Foot Washing. I don’t know how comfortable I will/would be at such a thing. Should I get a pedicure because the priest will be washing my feet?

    QofD:
    Have any of you attended and had your feet washed? Your thoughts on it?

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  4. I have never attended a foot washing. We did have a bit of discussion of that subject at our Sunday night Bible Study. A few people commented about attending, but the most touching testimony was given by an older deacon who had a good friend in our church who was in hospice and near death. The dying man was agitated and not able to be comforted, but then the deacon thought to wash his feet. A calm came over the dying man and he was peaceful after that and died the next day.

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  5. Kim, I once co-taught a class of inner-city kids with an older black man. He wasn’t much of a teacher, so most of the work fell on me. But one session, I was working with most of the children, and I had the children go into a small room, two at a time, for him to wash their feet as part of the lesson on the Last Supper. But he decided to change my idea up a bit, and each pair of children, he had them wash each other’s feet while he read the story from Scripture, and then they talked about it a bit and he sent them out and I sent the next pair of children in. It was meaningful for the children and my co-teacher, and I was glad he modified my original idea.

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  6. Janice, interesting story.

    Some friends and I participated in a church-sponsored foot washing one year, probably 20 years ago now (?). It felt awkward, to be honest, but I imagine if this was something your church regularly did it would be quite meaningful. I’m glad we went, I think it was a church where I attended on Saturday nights occasionally (I was a member of another church in another denomination).

    When they posted it in the bulletin saying all were welcome, I told my friends and we all decided to go.

    So I FINALLY got all my tax stuff together (though I think I’m still missing 1 property tax stub) after waking up before 5 and realizing, OH NO, it’s getting toward the end of March and I haven’t even turned in my tax stuff to get my taxes done. So I’ll call the tax guy today and see if I can come by his office to drop it all off tomorrow. He’s usually in the office on Saturdays this late in the tax season.

    Next on the list will be getting a smog test for my car. But, hey, that’s not due until April something-or-other. That’s a long time away. I’m a skilled procrastinator.

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  8. Cheryl, we recently did something like that with our children’s Sunday School class. I modified it so that we used a spray bottle for the children to wet each other’s feet and we had towels for them to dry the feet. The children were not required to participate but most chose to at least take part either as a washer or washee.

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  9. Donna, I just had the emissions test done on one of our cars. Normally we pay $25.00, but a co-worker had found a place to do it for $10.00. You might want to check around and see if you find such variances in prices in your area, too.

    All these people who WAIT until the last minute (almost) to see their tax man 🙂
    Ah, man (gal), give him a break!

    I am thinking that with all the regulations and stipulations of the Obamacare laws that there will have to be businesses similar to tax prep offices set up to handle one’s medical healthcare. There will be the healthcare man’s office on one side and the euthanasia office on the other.

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  10. Janice, I know, when I bolted out of bed this morning I was thinking how horrible it was to be this late for my tax guy — who’s no doubt swamped by now, with the deadline ticking. 😦

    Our smog tests generally run around $40 out here, I’m not sure there’s much of a range — but I’ll start checking around to see if I can find it cheaper. Maybe $35 at least??

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  11. QoD: I was in Egypt once with a team from CA and a team from LA (Baton Rouge, that LA;) We’d only met each other the day before we were thrust into long, hot days (120F) and hard work. Though we were trained for this, nothing prepares you for the depth of poverty and oppression some people live under. And even though we were all trained we of course, being human, all had our own ideas as to how to proceed. The work itself was going well, but there was tension among the Americans. On the third night there the leader for the LA team lead a devotion in John 13. Then he washed the feet of the leader from CA and had everyone wash each other’s feet by pairs. This broke down every wall. We saw our own poverty and how much we needed to see the Master. That was the only foot washing I have ever experieinced, but it was a great one.

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  12. Chas and AJ, if you feel bad having glasses on without knowing it, try being 38 years old and sitting on the couch with a good book in one hand and a newborn baby sleeping on your other arm and you ask an older child, “Who has the baby?”

    That baby was 9 lbs. 7 oz. at birth, by the way — a little heavier than a pair of glasses. 😉

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  13. 6 arrows 🙂

    The foot washing described by Adios is what it should be all about. Perhaps one needs to be in a setting where it can be driving home into our hearts.

    We self-conscious Americans — so prim and proper in our own way, so self-sufficient really — probably have a hard time grasping the depths of an uncommon (to most of us) ceremony like that on the fly.

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  14. QoD: I have never participated in or even seen a foot washing done, but would love to be part of that sometime. I’ve been trying to think of different activities to do at home during Holy Week, and that sounds like something I think we will do next week.

    BTW, we’ve been cutting back on our media time as a family this week, preparing to go on a complete media fast, probably for Holy Week. So I won’t be around here next week (not even reading). I’ll be praying for all of you at different times during the week — I’m thinking of praying according to geographical region, as I know where most of you are located generally.

    We’ll be filling our media-free time with different activities, especially relating to Holy Week. Do any of you have more suggestions for things we could do, in addition to the foot washing? I always like the variety of suggestions on a wide manner of topics all the creative people at Wandering Views come up with. 🙂

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  15. driven. Or something.

    My grammar is off today. And my mind. But I know that I am wearing my glasses. And I haven’t lost a baby somewhere.

    Ah. There’s the cat, though, wanting back inside for the 3rd time this morning. And the sun isn’t even up yet.

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  20. 6 Arrows, for Sunday School our children will be making Easter cards to send out to people on the church’s prayer list. One fun tradition at a preschool my son attended was to have a homemade Easter Hat parade.

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  22. A friend’s son washed his bride’s feet at the wedding. Very moving–but the (non-believing) mother of the bride had trouble figuring out the significance.

    Which reminds me, when we bought our wedding rings, we had them engraved with the date. I also had the jeweler add “Maranatha.”

    “Marantha?” he stumbled over the word. “What does it mean?”

    “The Master cometh.”

    “Oh,” he exclaimed with delight. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever had a bride engrave in her groom’s ring.”

    While my fiance laughed, I hurriedly explained. “He’s not the master, Jesus is.”

    The poor guy was so disappointed . . .

    But my husband has never forgotten his anniversary. 🙂

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  23. Oh, here’s a question I thought about yesterday that might be fun to ask. I have a hunch there are basically “two kinds of people” in this category, but I haven’t ever discussed it with anyone, so I’m curious.

    Are you inclined to think “I’d never trade places with him/her for anything” or to wish you could live the other person’s life? Or, do you go back and forth depending on the day or the other person’s life, or do you not ever think in such terms at all?

    Me, I meet people who “have” things I’ve wanted (two boys and two girls, for example) but always end up thinking, “But I wouldn’t trade my life for hers.” Whatever my disappointments and sadnesses, they always seem more “bearable” than someone else’s, and my joys sweeter. I like the life God has given me, warts and all.

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  25. I sometimes wish I could travel different places, mostly when I hear of people going here and there outside of their area, which seems to be often — so many people getting on planes, or going on road trips to various places. But that is not my life, so I don’t dwell on it very much.

    If I ever get wishing my life was more like so-and-so’s, the thought doesn’t usually stay with me very long because I realize there is a lot I don’t know about the person’s life, and I don’t relish the thought of having a life that I really don’t fully understand. I know myself, the general pattern my life has taken, and I would just rather stay with what I’m familiar with. I don’t really like change.

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  27. That’s the story of the barn full of crosses.

    Someone was moaning that their lot in life was hard; their cross too heavy.

    Jesus took them to a large barn and said, “take your choice.”

    It was filled with crosses of every shape, style, design and material. Gorgeous sparkling jeweled crosses–that were too heavy to pick up–lightweight balsa wood crosses that when you tossed onto your shoulder, they flew away.

    This person went through the barn picking up (or not!) all different types and trying them on his shoulders, looking for one that fit “just right.”

    He finally found it and carried it to Jesus.

    “Just as I thought,” Jesus said. “That’s the one you brought in.”

    Our “crosses” in life are given to us, uniquely, for the purposes God has planned for them. They may not be comfortable right now, but circumstances–and we–will change. Like Cheryl, we eventually realize the crosses, the life, we’ve been given fits us and our personhood, just right.

    I’m out of here! Bye.

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  28. I was thinking the same thing, that God has uniquely ordered each of our lives — and trying to live another would be living outside of what he has ordained for us specifically.

    Have fun, Michelle! Hope you’re feeling better.

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  29. I noticed an old phonograph and a stack of forty fives under our counter. Seems somebody donated them (temp, I think) because S, a fifteen year old, expressed interest in becoming a caller at square dancing. The things that go on around here…..

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  31. Have fun at the pet expo AJ — ours is coming up in mid April.

    No, Mumsee, I’ve not had occasion to have anyone ask to come inside to use my computer. But I live in California where everyone pretty much has a smart phone.

    Here’s a jarring read about medicine as it was practiced in the Revolutionary War. I often think that the Christian Science church’s disdain for going to doctors probably didn’t sound that unreasonable 100+ years ago when medicine didn’t always have much to offer.

    http://allthingsliberty.com/2013/03/better-to-eat-that-apple-a-day-medicine-in-the-revolutionary-era/

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  33. The kind of people who ask to use my computer are generally people flirting with the edge of legal. I do not want them using my computer for illegal things, seeing as how our government checks these things so thoroughly. And the library has computers available, though criminals may not be able to use them, I don’t know. Generally, I am more than happy to let people have or use my stuff, but i am not so sure about the computer use.

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  36. Is Peter allowed to say that? I guess we’re leaderless now that AJ is off galavanting with God’s four-footed creations. So maybe we can say whatever we want.

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  37. Oops! Forgot to close the bold correctly. In case you can’t figure that last post out, it is the Spanish version of TGIF- Gracias a Dios, es viernes.

    Another funny today: While driving to work I saw a tanker truck with a sign that said “Yesterday’s Meals on Wheels”. It was a pumper truck that cleans out septic tanks.

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  39. I didn’t leave yet.

    It doesn’t start til 4, so it’s the VF Outlet’s first. Yay me. 🙄

    And I think Peter said Go Devils Blue. Least that’s what I got out of it. But then, I’m a Duke fan. 🙂

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  42. Okay, I was in a rush. Not only does GDEV mean TGIF, but it was supposed to be a link to the Friday Funnies. I guess I missed one of the html codes. That’s what I get for trying to make something bold and italicized at the same time in a link.

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  43. No..I wouldn’t let just anyone use our computer. My daughter and her husband had guests staying at their home for 6 weeks as their guests were between assignments…the guest was a Marine. My soninlaw’s accountability contact received an email that a porn site had been accessed at the home computer. This Marine did not know my daughter and her husband had “covenant eyes” on their computer system….the computer was downstairs where the guests were staying. Needless to say….they had to have the talk with Marine and wife….you just never know….

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  44. No, I wouldn’t let just anyone use my computer.

    And, we also have Covenant Eyes on many of them, as well as other safety protocols.

    I don’t want to get into all. We’re a very computer oriented family and EVERYONE has their own computer, as well as a smart phone, as well as having extra computers “lying about.”

    And, despite our wealth of knowledge, some inappropriate things were seen on the computer and STILL my husband did nothing.

    After the 3rd disheartening incident, I finally put my foot firmly down. Either the computers would be monitored regularly, or they were all going out to the trash. And, I wasn’t kidding.

    So, now, there are passwords, silent monitoring, and regular outward monitoring (I can use, look at, peruse the history of, and generally be nosy with ANYONE’s computer/smart phone/iPod/iPad that I wish, as can my husband. No one has an expectation of privacy. If you don’t want it seen, then DON’T DO IT.)

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  45. And, I’m not saying this to those of you who just *suspect* your kids, or who have troubled kids.

    My kids are some of the nicest, kindest, “good kids” you’d ever want to meet. I’m proud of them.

    BUT, both boys and one of my daughter’s friends got into some things that I’d be embarrassed about.

    DO NOT MAKE IT just a matter of trust … no matter how “good” your kids are. Curiosity is stronger. Porn and other nasty things are easily accessible. If your computer is not being monitored, then you have a problem. Period. I don’t care how wonderful your kids are.

    Learn from our mistakes. MONITOR your computers and smart phones, etc.

    There are wonderful programs out there that will simply monitor what happens on the computer and give you regular reports (sort of like spy ware in the government). These will let you access anything, but someone is going to see that you did so!

    There are also various “nanny” programs and some are very good. (The spyware programs are a lot more expensive than the nanny programs, so we use a combination depending on the computer, who uses it, and so on.)

    Honestly, a lot of adults need an accountability partner of some sort with their computer use.

    Please, it doesn’t mean they’re bad people. Everyone has their areas of temptation or weakness.

    NO UNPROTECTED COMPUTER should EVER be in someone’s home. If you don’t believe that, you are naive. I was.

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  47. Oh, and with the Smart Phones, you can disable various options with a password, and you can remove the regular browser from use and replace it with Mobicip. This is a browser that monitors where it goes, reports on it, and does not let you go to certain places.

    My kids use Mobicip on their smart phones. http://www.mobicip.com/

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  49. Tammy, I am sorry to hear about your intrusion problem. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. We’ve had apartments burglarized twice. A rental home burglarized. A car stolen from in front of our home. A battery stolen out of a car in front of our home. Computers hacked more than once.

    Pray if you want. (I don’t see the point, frankly.) Take sensible empirical precautions. Even where we live, which is very safe, we have four murder trials going on at the county courthouse. We have mesh and an electric fence around our chicken house. We lock our doors when we leave home. We lock our Jeep when we park.

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  50. I figured Peter’s 10:21 was an attempt to get the funnies linked when I saw it. 😆

    Mumsee, I agree with everything they said about letting someone use your computer. When Chuck and the kids come, they have access to my computer, but I trust them. I use Chuck’s when I’m there. But I wouldn’t let someone I don’t know use my computer.
    They might discover that you communicate with some odd people on wandersviews.
    😯

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  52. Here’s QoD, or a sneaky way to get advice. How would you deal with a neighbor’s child’s rudeness when the parent is not present. One of the Kid’s friends ate with us and then went with us to the movies. He didn’t do anything wrong but he did make some rude remarks about the food and another about a blemish on Hubby’s forehead. He is one of the Kid’s oldest friends but I have to admit he is hard to like.

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  53. Chas- They might discover that you communicate with some odd people on wandersviews.

    We’re not odd, just out of the ordinary.

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  54. Kim, I know what you mean with the “Reading Pet Expo” — it sure puzzled me, until I remembered there’s a place called Reading, Pennsylvania 😉

    But maybe I’ll just ask my Vet Tech major if she’s taking any courses about how to teach pets to read. You never know 🙂

    Janice, thanks for the Easter ideas. Sound like good ones.

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  55. I remember my mom biting her tongue with one of my friends’ biting sarcasm (we were middle school age) for a long time — then one day when this friend had come with us somewhere (and made yet another cutting remark directed at my first pair of glasses), my mom spun around and just laid into her about how rude she was and how I’d never made fun of her for the braces she’d worn for years. Yikes.

    I think we were all surprised. Not sure that was the way to handle it.

    But it did make my friend very quiet on the way home. And I don’t remember her ever teasing me about my glasses again (for other things, though. 😦 )

    Kids.

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  56. OK, speaking of pets reading. There’s a growing organization out here where people take their assistance dogs to libraries. The dogs then sit or lie next to children who are just learning to read aloud. Guess the theory is the dog isn’t going to be critical of your mistakes, plus they relax people.

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  58. KBells, you always have to be careful with other people’s children (something byt the way I have noticed black women don’t do—they will call a child out in a heart beat). Perhaps you turn the tables on the comment and say “Billy how would you feel if you had a mark on your face and someone rudely pointed it out or made fun of it?”
    I’ve lost a few friends over the years. My Aunt V went somewhere with me when one of BG’s friends went with us. They had some goofy phrase that drove me up a wall. I told them from Mobile to Auburn to stop. On the trip back from Auburn I stopped for gas and Aunty V crawled their behinds and told them she was an OLD woman and she was tired of hearing it and they weren’t to make another peep the whole way home. I got back in the XTerra to two really subdued girls.

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  59. I remember making a comment about one of my cousin’s eyes. I thought they were very pretty, but a women who happened to be with us, jumped all over me for making a comment about someone’s features. I am not sure why to this day. I never said anything, but I wondered if the women thought the eyes were ugly or something. It never occurred to me that they were. Sometimes adults make things to be more than they are. I was actually hurt SHE would think I was making fun of someone.

    I would not feel bad about pointing out to any young person that we should not be rude or laughing at anyone. OTOH, some people go ballistic over harmless teasing. I once teased my daughter and a woman who was there went ballistic. I found out later she really had a problem, such as I was teasing about. It was a lesson for me, although my daughter was not at all offended. Sometimes we have to be aware of how we sound to a third party.

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  61. KBells, my opinion on dealing with a rude child whose parents are not present is that I think it’s appropriate for any adult who is in the presence of that child to speak to him/her about the rudeness. It’s an opportunity to help train a child’s character, though dealing with this kid may not be a regular occurrence. It could help reinforce character training that the parents are already doing (but the kid needed a reminder), or it may give the child a new perspective on how to treat people if he has never been so trained.

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  63. We had a lovely lunch (some will call it dinner) — the middle meal of the day — with all eight of us around the dining table. Second Arrow is on spring break this week, and was here earlier in the week for a couple days, and then again today, but she and 1st Arrow kept missing each other because of his work/sleep schedule and her social schedule. 😉 Today finally we were all together for a couple hours this afternoon, and it was wonderful to share a nice meal together. God is good.

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  65. Donna, I remember well having my dog TwoBits sitting beside me as I was first learning to love books as a child…I would stroke him behind his ears with one hand and hold my book with the other…what a wonderful program of which you spoke….
    I needed an escape tonight, so we watched “Owd Bob” on Netflix…have you ever watched? Loved it…and of course it is about Borders and sheep…and the Isle of Man…a definite watch again movie for me 🙂

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  66. I’ve never heard of that movie, I’ll have to look that up.

    But I have found “Up” on the Disney channel tonight. I’ve seen it before but not in quite a while — such a sweet and funny movie (with some early sadness of course). 😦

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  68. Very glad to hear that Roy. We see how important Mike is to these children. It was and is difficult for him at times to think he is not providing for his family, but then he realizes what a difference he is making in their lives and it is good. He is providing for his family with his military retirement, which puts us well below the poverty line but, in my opinion, the poverty line is pretty high.

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  71. Bad news and good news:

    Hubby’s overnight hours were supposed to be finishing up this week, and this coming Monday was to be the start of a new shift for him (early afternoon/evening, approximately 10-12 hours, rather than late afternoon/evening/night, approx. 4:00 pm to 6:00 am, as he’s been doing since early January).

    The bad news is, his start time next week (and for an undetermined length of time afterward) is still 4:00 pm, same as now.

    The good news is the higher-ups are finally recognizing how burned out the night crew is getting, and they have plans to rearrange the duties a little so that the night workers will have a shorter shift, 10-12 hours maybe. That would make the ending time more like between 2:00 and 4:00 am, rather than around 6:00 am.

    Hubby said that if he can be home by even 3:00 or 3:30 (he has a half-hour commute), that that would help his sleep schedule quite a bit, as it wouldn’t be daylight already by the time he was getting home from work.

    I am hoping that his work hours will indeed be shorter. He is hopeful that they will be. And when the new workers are more accustomed to the job, then hubby will be able to switch to the early afternoon/evening shift, and probably won’t have to work past midnight, which will be better yet.

    Praising God for this provision.

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