by

Our Daily Thread 6-1-13

Good Morning!

Happy Saturday! 🙂

On this day in 1774 the British government ordered the Port of Boston closed.

In 1861 the first skirmish of the U.S. Civil War took place at the Fairfax Court House, Virginia.

In 1869 Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric voting machine.

In 1916 The National Defense Act increased the strength of the U.S. National Guard by 450,000 men.

In 1938 Superman, the world’s first super hero, appeared in the first issue of Action Comics.

In 1954 Linus’ security blanket made its debut in the Peanuts comic strip.

And in 1961 radio listeners in New York, California, and Illinois were introduced to FM stereo broadcasting.

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Quote of the Day

“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”

Martin Luther

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Since I mentioned Superman…  Tell me this doesn’t look cool?

Oh yeah… 🙂

Next up today, it’s Mr. Griffith’s birthday.

It’s also Mr. Boone’s.

And this song was released in the UK on this day in 1967. The US release was tomorrow.

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Who has a QoD for us?

121 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-1-13”

  1. JoeB, report in.
    I was praying that the Lord would protect Oklahoma City and the others. I haven’t heard the news this morning, so I don’t know about St. Louis. I’ll check Drudge later.

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  2. Yes. Oklahoma has had a bad month. I watched some of it on the Weather Channel last night. I would like to somehow know “my people” are safe.

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  4. I was going to ask for today’s QOD
    When you tip in a restaurant, etc, do you tip on the final amount including the tax or do you look and find the pre-tax amount and tip on that amount?

    Perhaps today’s QOD should be:
    What is the worst weather event or natural disaster you have been through?

    My answers would be that I tip on the final amount, but someone pointed out to me that I should only tip on the pre-tax amount.

    I have been through two rough hurricanes. Frederick in 1979 We were without power and water for two weeks. Katrina in 2005. While I was only without power for a few hours the aftermath was horrid.

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  5. Sounds like it wasn’t as bad as it initially looked like it would be in Oklahoma last night?

    Then again, any event that includes reports of tossed cars and cows flying over highways can never really be minor.

    Calling JoeB.

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  8. The only natural disasters we’ve had here have been earthquakes and I’ve somehow been far enough away from the epicenters not to have been affected.

    But the Northridge quake in 1994 impacted one of my best friends who lived right at ground zero (an hour north of me). Their 2 children were small at the time & they woke up to the kids screaming and stuff flying off walls & shelves, there was broken glass everywhere. They were without power for several days.

    Where I was it was just a really bad shake that woke us all up with a jolt that didn’t seem to end (and it was stand-in-a-doorway worthy even though we didn’t get a lot of damage where I was).

    The workday started early that day, I remember being sent by my editor to a local liquor store where everything had gone flying off the shelves.

    My question about the latest Superman is how the old Daily Planet newspaper is fairing these days …. ??? Still publishing? A shadow of its former self? Maybe Superman can fix that.

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  11. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!

    Unless I’ve had bad service, I always tip the final amount and round up to the next dollar.
    I’ve mentioned before:
    I was listening to G. Gordon Liddy’s talk show. He was telling how he used to tip a straight 18% on the bill. His wife told him, “think single mom”. So he says he adds a little to his tip.
    I do too. I think “single mom”. When in Charleston, I think “Air Force wife”, when in Williamsburg, I think “Wm & Mary student”, etc. We were having lunch at Hannah Flanagan’s and had a male waiter. I thought “history major”.
    Not one of those people are waiting tables because they like meeting people.

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  12. The thing about Facebook is, I have no compunction about lying to them concerning dates and location . . . But it gets embarrassing on certain days of the year.

    In truth, Chas got married the day before my first birthday.

    But don’t tell all my sweet friends over there, I hate to embarrass us all and make Zuckerburg’s minions suspicious!

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  13. I was talking to someone recently who said he’d finally, with much reluctance, signed up for FB, forced by business practicalities. But he said he was so nervous about privacy that he lied about his birthday.

    “Did you at least make yourself younger?” I asked. “No,” he said, “I made myself a year older.”

    Men. Weird. Go figure.

    (I didn’t tell him you shouldn’t include your birth year at all, that would have only freaked him out more about the privacy stuff — besides, since it’s a bogus date, what would it matter?)

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  14. We’re on our way home today after 5 days in Chicagoland–away from the housing situation at home– which goes over the top on my real birthday. We visited the Art Institute and Navy Pier (that was pointless) and took a fantastic Architectural Tour along the Chicago River.

    My husband was here to attend and speak at a conference and I spent two days at gorgeous Wheaton College in the Oswald Chambers Special Collections in the library of the Billy Graham Center.

    I even had lunch in the commons located in the Todd M Beamer Center! Delicious.

    Fantastic research for my book topped off by the very kind archivist who was so helpful. I’d forgotten the Madeleine L’Engle papers also are there and had wondered if the letter I wrote her 36 years ago was in the collection.

    He and I worked together to solve a couple Chambers questions–it’s a totally nerdy thing to love research and for librarians to participate is lots of fun. (The two most common questions to a highly trained librarian? Where is the restroom? Where is the copy machine?)

    He obviously enjoyed the work and yesterday presented me with a gift: he found my letter and a copy of her response.

    I’m still agog. I’ll write a blog post soon to explain and to talk about the ideas I shared in my two-page letter–which I wrote about in a blog quite recently! I haven’t seen that letter since I put it in the mailbox a month before my wedding.

    Amazing. Humbling. Bewildering.

    I took a photo and I scanned it all as well. My “writing” is part of Wheaton College’s archives now and I can only revisit my youth. 🙂

    Oh, but the emotions!

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  16. When I was on Facebook, I hid my birthday–is that no longer possible? Actually, it was funny, because the year I was on it, several of my friends sent messages saying “Happy birthday” and one other person asked why she didn’t get a notification. So I told her they knew the date of my birthday, not because of Facebook! When a business insists on my birthday, usually I tell them I was born January 1, 1901 (if they let me). Once it wouldn’t let me do 1901 but it did let me do 2001 . . . and then it told me I was too young for the site. (It wasn’t an “adult” site or anything like that, but I suppose it just had a minimum age.) I figure that using 01/01/01 should tell them I’m making up a date and that it’s none of their business. (I would rather be truthful than make something up . . . but it truly is none of their business, and I’d just leave it blank if I could.)

    Re tipping: I tip on the base amount, not including tax, unless we used a coupon, and then I include a tip on what the full price would have been. But I read recently that if you order water you’re “supposed to” tip as though you had paid for a beverage. (Soda? Wine, though we never order it?) Never heard that one before! Who makes up these “rules,” anyway? We almost always get water because it isn’t worth three bucks for a drink, and because we don’t generally drink soda at all. If they bring a free slice of cake for your birthday, do you tip on that too? I wish the restaurants would just pay minimum wage and let tips be what customers choose to pay (or not) extra, for great service. Let us just give a buck to say “thank you,” or more if we think the service was extra good, and leave it at that.

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  17. I am quite contrarty when it comes to filling out information I don’t think they need. A lot of times I am quite the computer savvy 99 year old gentlman. I don’t mind telling anyone the date of my birthday. Epiphany. I just don’t share the year. As I have said before I lie notoriously about my age. I think I look really good for 73!

    As Mary Kay Ashe was famous for saying…A woman who will tell you her age will tell you anything.

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  18. When I was young (12 or 13?) and didn’t know any better I once left a 25 cent ‘tip’ for a coke — that cost 25 cents at a lunch counter in Iowa. I was by myself and knew you were supposed to leave something … I told my mom later and she explained the whole tipping thing to me. 🙂

    But I guess I made the counter lady happy.

    I still usually err on the side of tipping more rather than less, but at least I learned not to just double the amount of the bill.

    I hate math.

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  19. Michelle, wonderful stories! I am envious 😉 I have been introduced at speaking engagements as the premier historian for North San Diego County, though when that happens I start looking around thinking they got Marge or Susan to replace me. When I walk into the history room at the library the librarian drops everything and smiles like it’s Christmas morning.

    6 Arrows, very interesting post from yesterday regarding declining populations. My 52 year old brain is having a hard time remembering the well-known, liberal, Italian journalist that wrote a book about the Muslim take over of Italy. The Muslims taking over simply by producing more children than their Italian hosts. There has also been some interesting studies done o how pre-1980s population control in East Africa, followed by AIDS devastation has decimated populations there. One scientist say, “Who could have predicted that having less people would be such a big problem.”

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  21. I tend to forget to wish people Happy Birthday on Facebook. I try to remember to do it for about a month before my birthday so that I get a few birthday wishes myself.
    QoD, tipping I use to use the double the tax method but sales tax has gone up.

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  25. Aak, division?!? Noooooo.

    Our sales tax is 10% so doubling the tax works well — love that we all carry calculators now though!

    Girl Scouts have changed a lot since I belonged, I still have great memories of the snow and summer camps, horseback riding, selling cookies …

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  26. For my writer and editor friends, what would you tell someone who writes and punctuates as follows:

    Kim ,
    It was nice seeing you yesterday . As you know , I am always availble to take extra work . I can type , spell , and , punctutate . When would be a convenient time for us to meet ?

    It makes every email I get from this person difficult to read. It also messes everything up when forward one of their emails. I gently tried to tell them that it messed with the formatting, but it also makes it really difficult to follow what they are trying to communicate.

    (I am aware that my punctuation is not always up to where it was when I got that History and English degree but when something is really important I will double check by running what I wrote through spell check and grammar check.

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  27. 1stQoD: I tip on the final total as it never dawned on me to do otherwise. Having had three to five kids at any one time in the restaurant industry I am a generous tipper. And since Christians are notoriously bad tippers and most people in town know me I am trying to break that stereotype. I have even tested the stereotype, asking servers who the worst crowd is; one waiter’s response was typical, “Hands down the Sunday after church crowd. They are the most demanding and the worst tippers.” One of my daughters once chased a couple out of her place of employ and handed them back a tract they had left as a tip saying, “This won’t help pay that single mother’s rent who waited on you.”

    2ndQoD: Most of my earthquake experiences are like DonnaJ’s, merely foot-massages. But we were caught in a flash flood in the Mojave Desert one time. Very sudden and the thunderstorm was up 395 so hit us under a cloudless blue sky. We were able to get our 1970 VW Bus out of the muck. Thank God for German engineering. Did you know VDubs and float? Once out we had to take a detour through Death Valley in August with no AC (we were worried about over-heating) and lots of small children.

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  28. Adios, I am a lot like you. I used to have to travel quite a bit and at in restaurants by myself some. Women dining alone are supposed to be bad tippers too. I try to be a generous tipper.

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  29. Restaurants? I don’t go there very often and when I do, it is not me paying the bill or figuring out the tip. When it used to be me, I went with the final bill and considered the server and the fact that I had walked in with ten or so children so figure in the fear factor. Though the servers never failed to tell me they were amazed by the children, though quite alarmed at first.

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  30. Kim, I was typing my age before I read your quoted bromide. What would you like to know? 😉

    Another interesting bit from servers, men eating together take a bill and split the total evenly while women pull our their calculators and pay precisely.

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  31. Mumsee, we have had the same thing happen when we would walk in with our brood. At first everyone is looking at you like some kind of pariah and then as some sort of a saint. It is all very strange with lots of kids is your normal, eh?

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  32. I don’t think I’d ever heard of tipping on the amount before tax either, that’s a new concept to me. Just never really thought about it, I guess, but I can see the rationale.

    Still, I feel for those in the food service industry, it’s a tough job that pays very little. And I’m guessing they deal with their share of jerks. So rounding off the tip upward is usually the way I go. My friends and I are especially generous with tipping if we’re eating out on a holiday.

    The most complicated situation is when you have several people trying to divide up the bill. Even people supposedly good at math can’t seem to do that too well.

    So as long as no one’s ordered the filet mignon or prime rib, I figure the easiest way is just to split the bill up evenly.

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  33. Restaurants and children; years ago I worked in a couple of fast food places and I can tell you that nothing terrifies a fast food worker more than seeing a yellow school bus pull into your parking lot.

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  34. 20% of the total, including tax. More if they were really good servers.

    A handful of times I had awful servers and didn’t tip. On all those occasions I’ve explained to the server and manager exactly why. Like I said, less than 5 times total, you have to be really awful before I complain and don’t tip. And I never take food issues out on the server either. That’s not their fault.

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  35. Good morning, all! I’m enjoying the conversation here today. Wish I had time to chime in — there’s lots I want to say, but too much stuff to get ready for and go to today, so I’ll hold off for now.

    Have a great day! 🙂

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  36. I remember walking into a McDonald’s with my friends and their very large family (8) of small kids in NY a number of years ago. Looks, yes. 🙂

    Adios, funny about men dividing evenly and women having to figure out the precise amounts. 🙂 When I went out to eat a couple weeks ago (there were 3 of us, all women), we asked for separate totals or checks, which the waitress gave us.

    But then, for some odd reason, my companions still began going back and forth with I’ll give you $2, you can give me a $5 …. I kept trying to remind them we had “separate” totals, we didn’t have to worry about figuring out the change, etc., but I think they’d forgotten and were proceeding as if we had one total.

    We were there for a quite a long time trying to figure all that out, as I recall. 😉

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  37. Kbells, yes a bus is a whole other story isn’t it 😉 Even if it is filled with retirees headed to the the Indian casinos.

    There is a group worse than the after Sunday crowd as a general rule, it is the Red Hat Society ladies 😉

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  38. And sometimes men will fight over who gets to pay for the whole thing. My Dad and his middle bother would do that. This was before debit cards so they would be all the way into the parking lot still trying to slip bills into each others pockets.

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  39. I never have understood that whole leaving a tract rationale. Is there a statistic somewhere showing how many people have actually been saved by being given one of them?

    I used to love the poem that is is basis for the Red Hat Society but they have ruined it for me.
    Surprising to many of my friends I have only ever worked at a Burger King for a week and a half. The manager patted my behind and I quit (this was before Political Correctness and Sexual Harassment). I was afraid of what my dad would do if he knew the real reason I quit so I just told him my future wasn’ t in fast food and grease. Thus began the 20% going to the bank to cash a check for him fee.

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  40. Warning

    When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
    With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
    And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
    And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
    I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
    And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
    And run my stick along the public railings
    And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
    I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
    And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
    And learn to spit.

    You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
    And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
    Or only bread and pickle for a week
    And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

    But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
    And pay our rent and not swear in the street
    And set a good example for the children.
    We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

    But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
    So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
    When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

    Jenny Joseph

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  41. Tract, they may not be the best, but one of them was given to me when I spent the summer in Victorville. I studied it in the dark of night and it is what pointed me to Christ and my need for Him.

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  42. But I would not use them in lieu of a tip. I do know a lady who likes to enclose the tip in the tract, in the hope it will at least get opened.

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  43. I think I read in a Mary Hunt column about tipping pre-tax. Before that, I tipped on the whole bill. In our state servers are paid minimum wage and their tips are on top of that. Some restaurants share tips among workers and some go to the person who actually serves you.

    I do consider how good the service is to a point. I will give very generously for a server who deducts from my bill for badly prepared food, for example, or if we do have special circumstances. I cannot remember the last time I refused to tip. I tend to tip less for crabby, ungracious servers. I worked with the public myself and know how difficult it can be, but that is no excuse to take it out on others. I know some who are consistently this way at our local restaurants. I also consider if we have used a coupon or shared a meal and tip more. Some restaurants are very, very good about seniors sharing meals.

    I know many servers who are far from single mothers. They are wives and mothers who supplement husband’s who work in very good jobs. Some tell me about their trips and vacations. Some have worked for almost 30 years in the same restaurant.

    I became a more generous tipper after I had a daughter who was living for those tips. I do consider that possibility when I tip and tip accordingly.

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  44. It may not get opened. Chuck used to work at a reataurant. The waiters are too busy to deal with tracts, etc. They put it with other stuff to be thrown out.

    I may not have been clear. I tip 20% on the final number and round up to the next dollar. Even, especially, when I’m paying with a credit card, it keeps the numbers clean.

    My youngest two granddaughters worked for Chick-fil-a while in HS, Jennifer worked for them in college.

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  46. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Michelle! She’s a year older than I am, evidently.

    QoD1: 15% at a casual, 20% at a “fancy” restaurant on the total, since I forget tot look for the pre-tax amount.

    QoD2: The great Blizzard of 2011, or “Snowzilla” as it got called in these parts. We had ~2 feet of snow and were stuck at home for two days before the snow plows could clear it without it drifting back over the roads.

    We also have been through the big drought last year, and two major Mississippi River floods in 2008 and this year.

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  47. Here’s an additional QoD, related to tipping: Do you tip tour guides or hotel maids? At the cave where I work, we are not allowed to ask for tips, but we are allowed to accept them. I’ve gotten anywhere from $1 to $5 form average tourists, but when it is a large group, I can get $20.

    When we stay at a hotel more than one night, we often leave a $10 tip. I realize most of those maids are way underpaid for the kinds of things they have to clean up.

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  48. I also round up to an even amount also.
    OK. I have to share this because I realize I have a sick sense of humor. Mr. P is listening to a South Florida Football Radio Program on his iPad. First a football player was asked where he would go on a dream vacation. His reply was to go to Europe and take the Orient Epress. He went on to explain it was a train. Mr. P made the comment that EVERYONE knew it was a train, he didn’t need to explain that. I told him no they didn’t…Call 21yr old son-can’t he is at work. So I told him to call 25 year old son. Woke him up. He didn’t know and Mr. P had to explain it was a famous train…go back to sleep.

    THEN a commercial comes on the radio station for Cheetah’s Pompano Beach and it’s “sister” club somewhere else where they feature hot girls, girls, girls and an early bird all you can eat breakfast buffet.
    Now, if you haven’t guessed Cheetah’s is a “gentleman’s” strip club. Do you really think the 300 pound guy slopping at the all you can eat breakfast buffet is going to tip the dancers well? (I did work it back around to our tip discussion)
    Can you just picture it????

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  49. Mumsee, you are the only person I have ever known of led to Christ through a tract. I am proud to know that. Look at all the good that has come from it.

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  50. Peter, when I stay in a hotel for more than one night I always tip the maid. During a work week, it at all possible, I seek out the maid responsible for my room and give her twenty on the front end.
    I have never thought to tip the guides. I am glad you mentioned it. I will be more aware.

    Years ago Waffle House didn’t take debit cards. I had just enough cash to pay mine and BG’s bill. I gave what I had left to our waitress and explained that she was wonderful, I simply didn’t have enough cash. She was very gracious about it. The next time we were in that Waffle House another waitress had our table. I tipped her and then tipped the first waitress to make up for not tipping her before.
    Thankfully now they take debit cards and no one gets shorted on their tip.

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  51. Hmm, worst weather event/natural disaster? I can’t think of one at all. Hail storms, but only a bit of damage to our car (not even worth fixing), threat of tornadoes – did not touch down, underpasses flooding – didn’t need to go there, i guess the worst would be a blizzard or two, including a complete whiteout for about 15 miles on the highway – but we were warm and safe and made it to town just fine. We did have some weather that caused the power to go out for 4-5 days – we survived just fine even if our frozen/cold foods didn’t. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for.

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  52. We have never left a tip at a hotel. We often wondered about it, but weren’t sure how much and where to leave it so they knew it was for them. Advice welcome.

    We tipped our wrangler/guide in Arizona when we realized he was a volunteer and he took us off the beaten track for our trail ride – it was awesome – the best way to see the Sonoran desert!

    We try to tip our servers generously and also to sometimes leave a tip for the cooks and kitchen staff – our daughter was a cook for several years and the restaurant had a policy of cash goes to the servers, debit or mc/visa was totalled at the end of the month and evenly distributed to all staff. She really appreciated that extra money 🙂

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  53. Kare, back when hotels had stationary I would write “Housekeeping” on an envelope and tuck it into the frame of the mirror. Now I just put the cash there. I fugure they will take it and not turn it in. 😉

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  55. Thanks Kim, I don’t know why, but I never thought to google it. That’s a great suggestion to leave it tucked in the mirror.

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  56. Tippingf: How about a cafeteria or buffet. I usually leave a small tip at each. All they do is offer coffee refills.
    Most cafeterias are going out because they are labor intensive. The place I worked while in college was a cafeteria; but I worked the stockroomn.

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  57. Tracts, we never know how God is working. But if the tracts contain His Word and it is going out, how does His Word come back?

    In my case, I have told this story several times. Raised in an unbelieving family, my parents sent me to California to learn better tennis from my uncle. My aunt did not want us hanging around all summer, so she sent us to VBS. I listened to stories, played games, did crafts. But I never heard the gospel. They may have presented it, but as an ultra shy girl, I did not hear it. But they did send home a tract, and I did read it, and read it, and read it. It very clearly explained that I was a sinner in need of a Savior, as is the rest of humanity. It explained that I needed to repent, turn from my sins. To ask forgiveness. And to trust that He could and would forgive. And then to begin to live for Him. Pretty straight forward and very clear. It worked. They also gave me a Bible and the tract showed me how to get started. I do not disrespect tracts or VBS or any other means God uses to bring His people home.

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  58. I have been in sandstorms and blizzards. But the worse, in my opinion was a hurricane we had in Charleston when I was a kid. It might have been so scary because I was young.

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  60. I’ll post this on the prayer thread too . . . my family could use prayer. My sister’s husband died of a heart attack this morning. He was 46, and their kids are five to fourteen. We got to spend two days with them a couple of months ago, which is a blessing now, because otherwise we’d have only “my husband met her husband,” but as it turns out they spent several hours together. I’m rather numb.

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  61. QoD: I look at the total. If I decide I can afford to eat out, then I can afford to give a good tip. I have been a server, at a religious resort centre, and I know how much a tip can help that low salary. I can also attest to the fact that churchgoers aren’t the best customers. The nicest groups I encountered were a secular quilting group and an Arabic church. It wasn’t so much the tips, although they were generous, but they also were interested in us. I don’t mind being kept busy, but I do mind being treated like another species.

    What confuses me is how to pay the tip at the cash register. I always carry cash, so most places I just pay at the table and leave a tip. But I ran into difficulty once at a Cracker Barrel. I wanted to tip, but when they handed me a slip and I walked up to the cash register in the store, I wondered frantically what to do. Should I have left the tip on the table? Should I tell the cashier how much I wanted to tip? Should I just hand over the amount plus tip and say keep the change? I was so bewildered that I just didn’t try. Can you tell that I don’t eat out much?

    2nd QoD: The Great Ice Storm of ’98. We were among the fortunate few who kept our power, though the lines creaked beneath the weight of the ice.

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  64. Second QoD, the 2011 super tornado outbreak dropped a tree on my house. It’s been two years and we’re still dealing with it.

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  65. I haven’t even caught up with all of yesterday’s comments, then I dash over here to ask a question, & see over 60 comments here. On a Saturday!

    So anyway, here’s my question…A very outspoken, pro-homeschooling, Chrsitian friend avers that Christian teachers in public schools are compromising their beliefs & consciences to remain teaching in “government schools”, where there is such anti-Christian indoctrination.

    I know we have teachers here among us. How would you answer her?

    Thank for any input any can give. I’ll be back later. 🙂

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  67. I’ve been on the phone (and some e-mail) most of the day. It still hasn’t really “sunk in.” My brother-in-law was part of our family for 17 years, officially, but they knew each other and dated for four years before that. She said they had prayed that at least they’d both be around for the kids to grow up, because of what we went through. (I was three weeks shy or 17 when our dad died; she was 15 and our younger brother almost 14.) But their oldest is 14, about the age of the youngest of us.

    I was 44 when I married, old to be a bride. My sister is 44, young to be a widow.

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  68. Yes, Cheryl, so sorry to hear that. We will pray!

    KarenO, my husband is a public school teacher. First, he would say whenever someone assumes the way God has led them is somehow a mandate for all believers they are the worst kind of legalist. He would say this with sincere compassion 😉 Then he would probably say his school in neither anti-Christian nor has it ever forced him to “indoctrinate” his students. I could go on and on, but we have run this subject up the flagpole many times. I think the best thing for your friend is to get to know “government school” teachers in person. She might learn she is wrong about them. While we are believers I know some public school teachers I refer only to as Saints of the Most High God for their passion, purpose and selflessness.

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  69. There are obviously some jobs that Christians should not have: prostitution, gangster, abortionisr, etc.
    But I think it’s quite presumptive to question someone else’s calling.
    You can have Christian teachers, politicians, car salesman, whatever. My three grandchildren went to public school, and public universities. It hasn’t hurt them.
    Oldest granddaughter’s husband is a school principal.
    Youngest granddaughter is a high school librarian.
    Threy think they’re where they should be.
    Maybe Karen’s friend doesn’t get around much.
    I have mixed feelings about home schooling. It may not be good to protect children from all contrary opinions. When they get out into the world, these opinions will be waiting.

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  70. Cheryl, I’m so sorry, what an awful shock. How far away are they from you (drive-wise)? Those sudden deaths, especially of one so relatively young, are so jarring and hard to process. 😦 Praying for you all.

    I think we should be very grateful for the Christians who are public school teachers. It’s harder and harder, especially as text books (at least in Cali) begin to rewrite history and push favorite agendas. But so important that Christians remain a presence.

    I have to say also, though, that home schooling has really turned out to be a much better option than many initially thought it might — at least from what I’ve seen. Many of the families in my church home school and join together for joint outings and lessons, talent sharing (we have public school teachers who help out).

    Even in home schooling — unless you’re out on a prairie somewhere — it’s hard not to be exposed to lots of contrary opinions through just regular day-to-day interactions; at least out here. And contrary they are. 😉

    So I took my friend to Hometown Buffet, we used breakfast coupons.

    No tips involved — to be honest it didn’t cross my mind since it was entirely self-serve, although there certainly were many employees running around filling up trays and juice/coffee machines, etc. Weird I didn’t even think about it though, after our discussion this morning.

    I don’t like the cafeteria-style places, but it was where my friend wanted to go and it was her birthday. 🙂

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  71. Most people would say that we over protect our children. And our children have seen much more than the average adult has seen. We home school them. Which means husband can take them out to mingle in the world and hear all sorts of contrary opinions. We sent our son for a couple of weeks to stay with my lesbian cousin and her other and our eldest son and his pro Obama views. They get exposed to a wide range of contrary opinions, while they are still at home and able to digest the information and discuss it with our view point.

    Teachers: they ought to be where God calls them to be. The believers do what they can to impart wisdom to the children, while trying to follow the rules.

    Our tutor is a believer and would like to be in the public school, helping children to learn, giving them somebody who cares, dropping little nuggets of Truth. But she is here now, helping us and we are glad.

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  77. Just saw a snakebite victim for the first time – a child. We had to send them on to get anti-venom. All we can do is pray.

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  79. Karen – To your friend. I would say she has a wrong view of education. Education is teaching children how to learn and reason. A Christian who has a talent for such teaching would be invaluable in the public schools. There are ways of teaching even the most objectionable material to students that prevents indoctrination.

    I’ll never forget my sociology lecturer in college. She was crass, occasionally obscene, and dripped with liberal bias, but she said something at the beginning of her lectures that stuck with me – “You are free to accept or reject the things you learn in this class, but in order to do that, you must first understand what is being taught.” She was a liberal through and through, but she grasped a vital aspect of learning that conservatives and liberals both forget. I learned to look at the world’s philosophies without fear, because I was free to decide what I thought about them.

    Too many homeschoolers shelter their children from contradictory views, only to find that the child either cannot make decisions for themselves, or the child is so exasperated that they rebel without reason. In either case, the child has not learned to think – they have only memorized a set of rules which they repeat or contradict mindlessly.

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  81. I think some of the challenge I’m seeing in our large metropolitan school district (speaking of lower grade levels, up through high school, not college) is with the materials (textbooks/curriculums) now being used that promote particular social agendas and views of history. I’m sure Christian teachers struggle with this, but how they’re needed right now to provide a balance and to challenge their students to think through these issues.

    Years ago, friends of mine — who were strong supporters of the public school system elsewhere in the country — finally pulled out when their kids were still in elementary school to opt for a homeschool model. I was a little dubious at the time when they told me (homeschooling wasn’t that widespread back then). But the parents, the dad a law school grad & his town’s public defender, were clear and principled thinkers and they taught their kids well. They all wound up on scholarships at ivy league colleges and graduating with advanced degrees, mostly in the sciences, ridiculously well-adjusted, all of them, and still keeping the faith.

    Homeschooling isn’t for everyone and I’m sure it’s done quite badly in some cases. I’ve seen mostly success stories, but parents have to be very well equipped to take something like that on; and it shouldn’t be seen as sheltering kids from the world, but rather as giving them a firm foundation they might otherwise not be able to get in their particular public school.

    And I suppose you now have homeschool advocates who are, well, rather extreme in their positions.

    One size just doesn’t fit all families. And I’d say homeschooling is a good option probably in only a minority of situations overall.

    I’m sure there are many differences in districts throughout the nation, some are better than others. But blessings to believing teachers who are hanging in there and fighting the good fight, I hope they stay. They’re much needed.

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  83. I was grateful for every Christian teacher my children had in their public school years. There are many more in the public schools than many people think. I did not mind the atheist teacher, either. He allowed other opinions and as long as they were properly defended would grade fairly. He helped my daughter think and formulate her own beliefs.

    I was not happy with the teachers who insisted on grading unfairly for opinions that were not their own.

    How sad, Cheryl! Will pray for his wife, children and all of you family and friends. I know how devastating those young deaths are for those left behind. 😦

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  84. Thanks for all the responses to my question. I agree with “all y’all” (how’s that, Kim or kBells?) that there is a place for Christians in the public schools.

    My friend does have experience with teachers in her own family, others she’s known, & her bad experiences with the public school system in her town (in upstate New York). She is also very concerned about (& very opposed to) the Common Core Curriculum that is being pushed by the federal government. I think Tammy has posted some things about that on Facebook.

    I’ll share some of your thoughts with her. She’s stubborn when she “knows” she right, but she’s a sweet lady, too.

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  85. Re. tipping: I just heard a pastor say that you should tip at a ‘normal’ or even greater amount, even if you had lousy service. That in doing so, you are showing forth grace. Thoughts?

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  86. Whew, lots of comments yesterday! Where to begin?

    QoD 1: I never thought to tip on anything but the final amount. And when did the standard tipping rate go from 15% to 20%? Or did it? If it did, is that a reflection of servers being paid less now than before? (I don’t know if that’s true, I’m just wondering.) (Incidentally, one of my relatives says he doesn’t tip at the “acceptable” rate because he thinks it just encourages restaurants to pay their staff less than they should.)

    Tychicus, I don’t know the answer to your question. I’ll have to think about that one.

    QoD 2: Worst weather event was getting caught in a flash flood while driving home one night from a graduation party. We managed to get home without assistance, but it was a little hairy for a while.

    Adios: This that you said: The Muslims taking over simply by producing more children than their Italian hosts. I think about that often. Many Muslims are having large families, raising up warriors for their cause; meanwhile, in contrast, many Christians, who could be raising up lots of warriors for Christ, are instead contracepting our warriors out of existence in the name of Christian freedom or what have you.

    There, I said it! 😯

    But I should clarify a couple things for everyone here. First, I’m not saying all forms of birth control are wrong in every circumstance, or that there is no good reason to ever try to prevent conception. But I think it’s easier for us as humans to focus on our own personal reasons for having or not having more children than it is to think about the larger Kingdom reasons for welcoming and training up in the Lord all the children God would give us through His gift of fertility.

    It’s harder to “Go ye into all the world” when there are fewer and fewer of us to send into the world.

    The other thing is, I want to be sensitive to the many wonderful Christians who struggle with getting or staying pregnant, and have not borne as many children as they’ve wished to have. My heart goes out to you. I won’t pretend to understand God’s reasons for allowing that deep ache, or for Him to not bring a spouse for Christians who have dreamed of marrying and having children.

    So my statement is not intended as a condemnation of those Christians who have no children or fewer than they desired. It’s simply a statement that when we’ve been blessed with an open womb, we do need to consider very carefully how we use that gift to God’s glory.

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  87. Cheryl, I’m so very sorry about the death of your BIL. My prayers and condolences for you and for your sister and her family. It is a hard road to walk.

    My sister’s husband died just a few days after their first anniversary. They had an infant at the time. My sister vowed she would never marry again, and she has not, though she has received at least one marriage proposal since then.

    I cannot begin to fathom how hard the death of a spouse would be, especially when there are children still at home.

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  89. Blessings on your Sunday, everyone. Today I’m going to a wedding of the man who was married to one of my best friends who died two years ago. I met his fiance yesterday, and she is a delightful Christian lady.

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  90. Tychicus, I agree with your pastor. There are an increasing number of young people who depend on tips for their living. Sometimes “lousy service” is the fault of the waiter/waitress. Sometimes the “lousy service” is the fault of the manager who underscheduled workers or the two people who didn’t show up. Sometimes, it is no one’s fault (just an unexpected rush of customers). I start at 20% and go up for good service or at Japanese places where the cooking is a show. If service is really bad, we don’t go back to the restaurant.

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  91. I always tip 20% off the total, which I now realize includes the tax. I’m very particular to be generous if I’ve made some reference to being a Christian or if we’ve obviously said grace.

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  93. Tychicus, interesting perspective and, not having thought too deeply about it, I would tend to be in agreement.

    Actually, I can’t remember getting really “bad” service, at least not in any recent years. I don’t go out to eat nearly as often as I once did, but generally I find if you’re not outright difficult to please or picky & quick to gripe, those who are serving you are, too. 🙂

    6 Arrows, well said and I think most of us would generally agree.

    On 20% vs. 15%, yes, it did change some years ago (I hadn’t realized it either, at first!). And while I don’t think people are getting paid less necessarily (although perhaps they are, possibly through reduced hours), it does help people keep up with the rising cost of living.

    California tends to be especially expensive and groceries, gas, rent, etc. are often quite high. 😦

    Nothing from JoeB yet?

    Let us know how you are, Cheryl. You, your sister and the kids are on all our minds right now.

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  94. Cheryl, I read your post yesterday on my phone and haven’t yet figured out how to post from it to this blog. When I read it, my heart hurt for you and your sister. Those age ranges hit close to home and I cannot imagine the grief and befuddlement your sister is/was feeling. I truly pray that you are in a position to spend some time with her and help her through this. I kbnow you are thinking of your nieces and nephews as well and remembering losing your own father at an early age. I wish I had some words or phrases to say, but I don’t. I am simply very sorry for her loss.

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  103. I disagree with tipping good for poor service. I do agree that bad things happening during a restaurant meal are not always the fault of the server. However, rewarding a server for bad service, which is within their power to change, is encouraging them never to bother changing that behavior. I would not do that to people I care about.

    I also do not like the attitude that makes it sound like everyone who is a server in a restaurant is broke and in need of charity. Tipping is not meant to be charity, although sometimes it can be that.

    Perhaps I know too many restaurant servers who do the job simply because it pays more than other jobs, works around their schedule or to pay for the ‘fun’ things in their lives. Most of the ones I know are getting minimum wage plus tips, however. When I visit other states, that is not always the case. Still, I know many of the servers I personally know would not want to be thought of as a charity. Although, they still would like the tips. 😉

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  104. Speaking of tipping, I just came across a comic 1st Arrow had clipped some years ago. I don’t know the names of the characters in Pearls Before Swine, but one character said, “Excuse me, but we’re trying to figure out your tip…The bill is $14.00.” To which another character responded, “Oh…well, an easy rule of thumb is to just move the decimal point two places to the right.” 😆

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  105. I “could have sworn” that when I was a kid, the usual tip was supposed to be 10%, off the pre-tax amount, but I’ve been told it was never that low. So, 15% had been the norm for quite a while, & now they’re saying it’s 20%, in addition to restaurants meals being more expensive?

    We have always tried to be generous tippers, & I agree with the saying “If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to eat out.” But which would be better – customers who stay away because tipping 20% would make it too expensive to eat out, or more customers with slightly lower tips?

    I have known a couple ladies who enjoy waitressing because they enjoy people. I don’t think I would enjoy it, but they do/did.

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  106. The watrisses I have noticed, do not associate with the people. It is lots of hard work.

    But that isn’t the reason I came here.
    I am re-reading Surprised by Joy the spiritual autobiography of C. S. Lewis.
    I came across an interesting description. Lewis makes it of his father. In my experience, it is very common:
    “For one thing, he was not a man who was easily informed….What he thought he had heard was never exactly what you had said.”

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  107. OTOH, it’s like the guy said, “I know you believe you understand what you think I said. But I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

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  109. Karen, you are correct that at one time tipping was 10%, then it edged up to 15, and is now 20%. As a small child, I was with my parents in more than one restaurant that when they looked at the menu prices we got up and left, leaving a dollar on the table. In those days they paid cash for everything.

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  115. Cheryl- May the Lord comfort you and yours in this time of loss.

    Well, I guess the Christian in a public school question was answered. And the tipping one. And several others.

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  116. Peter – My husband, Lee, isn’t sure if we’ll be able to meet. If you’d like to contact me for any ideas on where or when would be convenient for you, my email is keko161@yahoo.com. Then I can pass the info on to him to see what he thinks.

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  121. I’m a lazy tipper – I could compute the 15% in my head, but our local sales tax is 8.75%, so I just double which would work out to 17.5%. Then I round up so the total with tip comes to an even dollar amount.

    Tipping before or after tax makes no difference. Even at 20%, it would only amount to 1.75%, or an extra $1.75 on a $100. tab. I would consider that amount immaterial; definitely not worth quibbling over! 🙂

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