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Our Daily Thread 5-13-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1607 Jamestown, Virginia, was settled.

In 1787 Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia, where he successfully landed eleven ships full of convicts on January 18, 1788, at Botany Bay. The group then moved north and settled at Port Jackson.

In 1846 the U.S. declared that war already existed with Mexico.

In 1865 the last land engagement of the American Civil War was fought at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas.

In 1867 Confederate President Jefferson Davis was freed from prison after spending two years there for his role in the American Civil War.

In 1918 the first airmail postage stamps were issued with airplanes on them.

In 1967 Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run. Yankee manager Joe Girardi got his 500th win as the skipper of the Yankees this weekend too. Just thought I’d mention it, in case you hadn’t heard. 🙂

In 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter’s Square.

And in 1985 a confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group’s headquarters. 11 people died.

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Quote of the Day

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

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Two birthday musicians today. First….

And then Hootie, no Blowfish. Or Darius, if you prefer…

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Who has a QoD for us today?

26 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-13-13”

  4. I posted yesterday about the prayers for mothers our priest led us in yesterday. I had forwarded him the blog post that Donna had shared with us last week. He obviously read it.
    I got a Happy Mother’s Day text from 21 year old son and last night 24 year old Marine son was talking to his dad and I was handed the phone for a Happy Mother’s Day. Both boys were told to do it, but at least they did. Progress?
    Baby Girl gave me a nice card. I didn’t ask her if she read it first, but perhaps she did truly mean to tell me what the card said. She didn’t go to lunch with us, she went to her aunt’s house and saw her Nana. When my niece picked her up she got out of the car to hug me and told me not to worry, she hated her mother when she was 15 too.

    On another note, my Easter Lillies are blooming. I noticed that all the blooms were facing in the same direction. They are all facing East, Trivial, but I noticed. I thought there was some significance in that.
    Now, I really must start my day. I will be in class two days this week and I have a lot to get done before that.

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  6. It’s supposed to reach 102 in downtown LA today, probably *only* 90-something where we are at the coast. So I’m actually relieved to be headed in to work where it is air-conditioned.

    Yesterday was quite uncomfortable, I think my house temp was still 80 degrees when I went to bed at around 10. 😦

    I was enjoying a cool breeze coming in the bedroom window early this morning (helped by the fan) when the cat decided to pounce. She happily slashed open a nice spot on my leg that required some Neosporin and a couple Band-Aids.

    But it worked. I got up and let her out.

    Brat.

    I let the dogs sleep outside, I closed them in the kitchen so I could leave the doggie door open all night while keeping the cat captive.

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  8. Very busy couple days around here, too. I’m busy scrubbing my soul of sin so we can find a house . . .

    Do you think it will work? 🙂

    At least my attitude should be improved! 🙂

    Had a long conversation with a couple at church yesterday. Jack told about the anguish of his 95 year old father. Eventually, we turned it to spiritual issues. “Why doesn’t God just take him home?”

    I shared my similar thoughts about my father–which I’m sure I’ve told here before–and suggested we turn the prism and consider this from a different angle. “What could God be teaching YOU through this. Maybe your father’s length of life has nothing to do with him–a long-time believer–and everything to do with someone else?”

    “Well, my sister says I need to learn patience and how to deal with things better,” Jack laughed.

    His wife smiled. That’s all. Just smiled.

    I pointed out other areas in his life that God could be using this experience to influence for the better (relationships with son and grandsons. Jack has a real ministry to his family now that he’s retired and he takes that job very seriously).

    Stunned.

    Wife just smiled.

    I shrugged. It wasn’t from me . . .

    I turned that same prism on my latest horror, the house search, and asked God to help me recognize the “real” work that is being done through this process.

    I had to confess a bunch of sin–mostly in attitude–and ask for help to follow step by step where the Spirit leads. I need to free myself of expectations and listen.

    Okay, that’s where I am today. Let me adjust my halo so it doesn’t shine in your eyes . . . .

    When you see my slipping, feel free to remind me that God’s work in our lives is not always pointing in the same direction we think we’re going in.

    Does that make sense?

    Laughing and off to dance!

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  9. Enjoy the dance, Michelle. 🙂

    I don’t know what God is up to most of the time. Our sermon yesterday was on how He uses trials to mold and prepare us. And I still often think of the story from the Hiding Place … The one about not needing your train ticket (or God’s grace to go through a particular trial) until you’re ready to step on board …

    “The Law is for the proud and the Gospel for the brokenhearted.” – Martin Luther

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  10. I struggled a lot with my attitude yesterday when my husband did not offer to take me out to eat after church. (Most years he does.) I overheard him say something to our older son about “I thought of taking Mom out” but I didn’t hear the rest. I guessed he thought I would not want to spend the money. I might feel some discomfort over spending the money, but I found it harder to deal with knowing he’ll sometimes spend money on other things he’s not sure I would agree to, but decide not to even ask when it’s for me on Mother’s Day.

    He had asked (the day before) what I wanted and I said it would be nice not to have to cook. So he and the boys decided to make themselves leftovers and sandwiches for lunch when I didn’t offer to cook anything. I made myself some quinoa, which I had planned on making a batch of at some point, though by then I didn’t really have much appetite for it (or anything else).

    Mid-afternoon my husband asked if there was something I’d like to do. He said he’d suggest going out in the evening if it weren’t for the baccalaureate service (for the high school graduates) that he was preaching at in the evening. (He has strongly recommended that they change the date of the service in future years not to fall on Mother’s Day – didn’t used to be a problem but the school district changed when graduation falls .)

    It’s hard to think of things to do together as a family, but I finally suggested disc golf. He said he’d be willing but not enthusiastic because he’d have to change out of his good clothes and then back again for the service, plus it would probably be muddy on the course – he’s the only one in the family has played it before (I thought it would be fun for the rest of us to learn) and I hadn’t realized it went through the woods.

    While we were deciding what to do, my younger son suggested he and I go running, since that’s something he knows I like to do. I appreciated his wanting to please me and didn’t point out that my liking running doesn’t mean it’s my idea of a fun way to spend Mother’s Day. (I like the health benefits and I’m training for a 5K, but it’s *work* to run.)

    So we did 1.5 miles, my usual distance these days (planning to try 2 miles next time). Unfortunately, shortly after we turned around at the post office and started home, he tripped and fell. I’m not sure on what – he says he forgot to put his heel down. (????) He skinned his right knee and a bit on his left hand, but after a couple blocks decided he could run again as long as it didn’t start bleeding more. Once we got home and cleaned him up, it didn’t look bad.

    So instead we played board games, first Scrabble then Quelf. My husband was skeptical about Quelf, but he seemed to enjoy it. It was pretty funny when he had to do Darth Vader-style breathing and the dog was trying to jump all over him. We laughed a lot, and I ended up having a good day. (I won both games, but I would have enjoyed it just as much even if I hadn’t.)

    Unfortunately, this morning the school called and said our (younger) son had a swollen left wrist and it was hot to the touch, and they had no nurse on site. So my husband had to go pick him up, and made a doctor appointment for this afternoon.

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  11. I have had lots of computer troubles lately therefore little time to post. It has been a week of mishaps for me. I missed a trip with the WMU ladies that I failed to mark on my calendar so a bus load of ladies and a driver were waiting for the “no show” me since I forgot to put it on my calendar. I locked myself out of the house when I went out in a hurry to mow the lawn because I thought it might rain. I had no water with me to drink during the sweaty chore and ’bout got very ill. Husband had to make a round trip (about an hour) drive to let me in the house. Today I went to get lunch for him and me and I got a peach milkshake to surprise him from Chick-fil-A and as I was getting out of the car with all the bags and a lemonade and the milkshake, I did not have a good grasp on the shake and it spilled in the parking lot. At least a little bit was left in the cup for him to enjoy. He also kindly cleaned up the big splatter (nice surprise, huh?). Anyone else have one of those kinds of weeks lately? It’s enough to make one cry over a spilled milkshake 😦

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  12. Everybody’s haveing so much trouble. 😦

    This probably belongs on the preyer thread, but I’m here; so there.

    I mentioned Friday about Jimmy and his diabetes, and gangrine and leg. I went over to Asheville to see Jimmy today. I didn’t know that I was walking into a birthday party. The room was full of people and I got a little piece of cake. Jimmy turned 65 at 10:30 today. He is/was in good spirits. His left leg was amputated below the knee. That is not good,but much better than I expected it to be.

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  18. Don’t ya know it would be a peach milkshake in the “Peach State?” I felt especially bad because the last time we had been to Chick-fil-A my husband had noticed the advertisement for the special shakes for only a limited time and I said he didn’t really need one (thinking of the cost and all). But I wanted to do something nice as a surprise since he had rescued me when I locked myself out. Somethings just aren’t meant to be.

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  21. Well, let’s see: Mother’s Day. I’ve never understood why husbands celebrate it, and definitely wouldn’t expect my husband to–he has a living mother and I am not his mother. But the only Mother’s Day greetings I received were from other mothers at church. (The daughter who called last year to wish me “Happy Mother’s Day” is out of the country till Friday, so I didn’t really expect her to call or otherwise note it. The other one was out of the country or working last year–she had a spring break trip with friends, and I think it fell over Mother’s Day–so I wasn’t really sure what she would do, if anything, this year.)

    But it was actually a very sweet Mother’s Day, since my husband was home sick and that meant the younger daughter and I ended up spending a good part of the day together (to church and back together, in Sunday school and church together, and to the family lunch and back), and she has moved past treating me with respect into treating me with affection. So I really “felt like” a mom yesterday, Mother’s Day greetings or no–and I waited an awfully long time for that. Furthermore, she made supper tonight–and did an excellent job–and even washed all the dishes and tidied up the kitchen.

    Some day I’ll probably get a Mother’s Day card or two, and they’ll end up with my most treasured possessions. But for now it really is enough to have the privilege of being a mother to two sweet girls.

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  22. The whole (almost) peach shake?? On the ground? 😦 😦 😦 sobbing.

    It’s like 92 degrees here (at 7 p.m.) with a strong wind blowing. I have several windows thrown open and the ceiling fan going. It’s supposed to cool off considerably in the next day or two.

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  24. Ha, funny status update on fb by a former colleague:

    “Taking inventory on Monday night, I have: A cold, two children who got scraped up at school, a lot of leftover ham, a 9-year-old with a looming book report deadline, a busted wireless router, a husband on a business trip, five loads of laundry, a kid lunch box that may not just be dirty – but filled with mold, and a lack of an appetite for ham.”

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  25. I was pretty much alone on Mother’s Day except for time at church. Husband and I had our usual fast food lunch after church (sometimes I cook but did not want to on Mother’s Day). He went to work after we had the quick meal at home. Our son is working on the college campus so he was not home. He called and that was it for my Mother’s Day. Almost forgot that my brother gave me good wishes and wanted to know if I had breakfast in bed. Ha! I have never seen that happen in my life. If it did I would probably roll over on it thinking it was a dream.

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  26. Happy May 14th Birthday, AJ! 🙂 I remember you share a birthday with 2nd and 4th Arrows. I won’t be around here tomorrow, as it is a day of celebration at our house tomorrow with not only birthdays going on, but also the 30th anniversary of the date my hubby and I met. 🙂 Have yourself a very nice day!

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