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Our Daily Thread 2-26-14

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from Janice, who gives us a little of the history behind it as well.

“Tulip Magnolia which we call “The Birthday Tree.” 

Each year we wait to see if it will bloom for my husband’s birthday which falls on March 11. The year I bought it, it was in bloom on his birthday. Most years it does bloom, at least partially, on that day.“

I hope you send us another when it blooms. 🙂

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On this day in 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France.

In 1907 the U.S. Congress raised their own pay to $7500.  

In 1919, in Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of Congress. 

In 1933 a ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

And in 1993 six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.

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Quote of the Day

“Sorrow is a fruit. God does not make it grow on limbs too weak to bear it.”

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Today is Fats Domino’s birthday. From thejazzsingers

It’s also Jonathon Cain’s. From JourneyVEVO 

And the last birthday for today, but certainly not the least, Mr. Johnny Cash.

And one of my personal favorites. From TopRankEntertainment

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Anyone have a QoD?

49 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-26-14”

  1. Morning all. Working on doing end of month transfers for a scholastic book order and the English Service offering. I’m tired. Time for bed as Wednesday is done. Blessings

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  3. You had some lovely music yesterday and ever Vera Lynn got mentioned. Today’s music is great and you know I always love me some Johnny Cash, but lest I get too highbrow I decided to take it down a notch or two. We are in the throws of Mardi Gras and I think you need to hear a little something from NOLA

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  4. The Cash song sunds like a Spiritual. I don’t recall hearing it before. I like better the song “Over the Nextg Hill” by Johnny and Anita. I listen to it on my CD often I’ll try to find it.

    Good evening Jo, Good morning Kim & Aj.
    Our neighbor has a magnolia tree. The only one I know of in the mountains.

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  7. Good morning! It is chilly here this morning and I see a puddle in the low spot in the driveway.

    I was happy to get the photo of the Tulip Magnolia tree bud on a sunny and blue sky day. The sun was shining just right on the bud so you can see the furry covering if you enlarge it. God’s handiwork in the details. Sometimes we get snow in early March so I guess God decided these early flowering trees needed fur coats for protection of their buds. 🙂 He is so good!

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  8. I thought that was a pussy willow, when I first glanced at it. It would be nice to see the flower. I am surprised by how many types of magnolias there are. One of my daughter has one in her yard. The flowers are so beautiful. I believe my mom has one, too, here in northern MN. I have never seen it in bloom. I think that one may have been bred to withstand the cold.

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  9. Cute birthday “tree.” It looks very southern. 🙂

    We’re all excited out here about the coming rain. We’re supposed to get the first ‘storm’ tonight and another, more powerful system, from Friday-Saturday. We’ll see how much rain we get. Of course, there’s the other problem of mudslides and flooding in the foothills following the fire season from last year, so people who live in those areas are busy putting out sandbags.

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  11. As usual, I thought the same thing as Kathleena and wondered who had pussy willows already.

    Slight drizzle here, we need 15 inches to not be in drought. 4-6 prayed for this weekend. Last year was the driest year in 400 years.

    Thirsty . . .

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  14. Michelle, Your post is good but it brought up the green-eyed beast of jealousy in me. I lost focus on what you wrote when I considered your dream childhood of exploration compared to my spending some summers at Charleston either in a tiny apartment or trailor so our family could spend time with my dad who was stationed at Charleston for his navy duty. My mom didn’t drive much so I remeber going to the Piggly Wiggly as a treat. We did get to go aboard my father’s ship once. My father did not care for the beach so we did not even see it except maybe once. I missed being at home with my good friends. I know you were not expecting this responde to your question. I don’t have a good answer to your question. But I will ask another. Why are some children so advantaged and others not?

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  15. Janice, you didn’t ask me the question but I will answer in a way I know best. Childhoods balance out. I had a horrible alcoholic for a mother. I don’t remember sitting in my mother’s lap and hearing stories. I do remember her telling a friend and me to go to bed, we were getting up early to go to Disney World–Only went once although was promised multiple times. I did get to travel. I have driven all over the Southeast and have been to every Civil War Battlefield my father had an interest in. I spent multiple weekends in New Orleans at the Zoo. I still haven’t made Europe. They were hiding bombs on planes when I could have gone as a student and I married a man who didn’t like to travel. I have managed to make it to over half the states in the Union and two “foreign” Carribbean Islands. The balance was my mother was an alcoholic, I was a lonely only child, I never “bonded” with my mother, and I am divorced and remarried.
    For years I beat myself up that the Christmas AFTER we divorced George FINALLY took my Baby Girl to Disney World. I maxxed out a credit card making sure she had all new clothes for Christmas to go to Disney world. I begged an invitation to my ex-mother in laws Christmas morning so that I could see the excitement on my baby’s face when she found out the next day she was leaving for Disney. I cried all the way home because I wasn’t part of it. I have regretted for years that I couldn’t give my Baby the childhood of travel that I enjoyed. I have lain awake at night wishing. I remarried and one of the first trips New Husband wanted to take was to Annopolis (some of my old stomping grounds) to see his new grandson. We took BG, I was so excited. She was not a good traveler. She sulked, despite me, husband and everyone else including Linda from here doing things with her. By the plane ride home she had had enough. Last summer I took her to Mumsee’s with me…once again she tried to get off the plane in New Orleans and have a friend’s mother come pick her up. She begged every day we were there to go home–we were 4 HOURS from the airport! By the time we hit Denver on the return trip I had promised her that if I ever got her back to Alabama I swore I would NEVER take her anywhere again.
    To balance this out—she had a mommy who snuggled and read to her. She had a mommy who did things with her when she was little. So far she has managed to have a mother who isn’t an alcoholic–I live under the knowledge that I could tumble over the edge any day.
    My father was beaten as a child. My mother was spoiled and indulged. Life balances.
    Create the memories you want now, don’t sulk about the memories you don’t have. (I say this in the kindest way possible becasue I do so love myself a good old fashioned pity party–I can throw a humdinger the likes of which you haven’t seen.)
    She is still with her dad and only sees me every other weekend. Sometimes I feel I have been tossed aside and the other side of the family is raising her now. She is breaking my heart daily. I can’t MAKE her come home. Life balances.
    The other day I posted a saying about “Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out”. I am struggling with that daily, but I am trying to live it.
    Check with me tomorrow when life has thrown me a curve and I am not quite so optimistic.

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  16. Kim, I know it’s not practically or theologically correct, but I, too, feel like life balances out. I had a crappy childhood (only slightly abusive, but with a mother-who-was-not-a-mother). God, in His infinite grace, has given me a wonderful husband, awesome marriage, perfect daughter-in-law, and two precious granddaughters right upstairs. On the other hand, you may remember me announcing the birth of a third granddaughter two days after Christmas and wonder why I didn’t include that daughter-in-law and that grandchild in my list. Let’s just say that maybe God is tipping the balance back a little bit.

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  17. I don’t think life balances out. I’ve known people with almost perfect lives, and off the top of my head I can think of someone whose life has consisted mostly of suffering (great physical pain, failure of her own serious relationship, etc.) and I know there are others like that.

    But some of the people I know who have suffered the most are (sometimes) among the most joyful, Christlike people I know. Others who have suffered comparatively little are constantly glum and complaining. Romans 8:28 tells us it all works out for good; the details of how it does so will vary from person to person, and I do not believe that this verse teaches that all the bad things I experience will work out for good in my life. If God uses something bad for His own glory and the good of others, He is still using it for good. I know personally of some areas where God has allowed me to understand and love others because of tender spots in my own life. That includes ways of loving my husband and our daughters.

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  18. I have not felt the balance so much in my life. But God (aren’t those wonderful words) has given me vision of how to be content in most circumstances. I am low maintenance. Thanks to God. It does not take a lot to make me happy.. I am not jaded. But I still notice the extreme difference between the children who have a lot and those who have little. I am glad for those who do get to travel and use their experiences to glorify God as Michelle does. I did once have a chance to travel some with my boyfriend’s sister who was a stewardess and their mother. I was invited to go to Columbia with them and some other out of the country destinations, but I wanted to save my money to buy a house. They were not destinations I would have chosen either, but they would have been affordable. So in that sense I had a tradeoff in that I bought the house instead of traveling. Even though I live next door to Florida, I still have never in my life been to Disney, but we did carry our son to Sea World which was more in his line of interedt and we saw the fireworks at Disney from where we stayed. Is that like Moses looking at the Promised Land? 🙂 When I was stuck at home never having a vacation for a number of years I decided to be thankful for the little plot of land God gave me. I considered that there is a great big world out in my yard if only I would take time to observe it. Thus I get immense pleasure from noticing how God dresses the Tulip Magnolia buds with fur coats. Yes, God is good as He trains His children in contentment. 🙂

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  19. Being content is something we all are learning. I tell my class that my husband left me and we were very sad, but God used it to allow me to come here and teach them.

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  20. We also know about more and the ability to travel (trains, planes, and automobiles) makes us more mobile than we used to be. There used to be people who lived their entire lives never leaving a 50 mile or smaller radius. They were happy and content. As a young child I drove an antique Singer sewing machine to California all the time but I will be quite happy in my real life to never have to drive to California—A plane will do quite nicely thank you.

    As Cheryl said, I have observed some people who I thank God in my prayers to have never lived their life but one of them in particular was the happiest person I have ever knows, humming a song all the time. Her fist marriage was abusive and he was an alcoholic but she hummed around the store where we worked. When she was late 60-70ish and a widow she remarried a wonderful man who thought she hung the moon. He was well off and she lived out her last 10-15 years in great comfort. I still say life balances and things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out.

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  21. I am very glad you are getting to do that, Jo. And I know the children are glad for it, too. Younger children really appreciate a good teacher. When I taught a preschool class of three-year-olds I tried never to miss a day (three days a week class) bug one day I had to be out and they actually cried about me not being there. I felt so loved. I was there consistent teacher and different subs would come in to class to help out. Children just want to know someone who loves them will be there for them. It is not like that with the older Sunday School children I work with now. I sometimes wonder if I make any difference in the lives of those I work with each Sunday.

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  23. Janice, I too felt a tad envious of Michelle going to see the salt mine as a child. Then again, I don’t think I might have appreciated it as much, at that age, as she did. We were a low income family and often did not go anywhere for vacations. We did go to Nova Scotia a couple of times to see family and a certain homeschooling program had us going to meetings in Nashville and Indianapolis a few times. We could only afford to drive, so that meant we got to see Quebec, New Brunswick, P.E.I., New England, Michigan, New York State, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky en route. My father never took the same way twice and tried to stop at as many tourist sites as possible; but I remember the unusual adventures more vividly, like the terrible mosquitos that interrupted our sleep in a Maine campground, or the brakes smoking out in Vermont. Of course, it helped that we live in the province that holds Niagara Falls, the capital city of Canada, and the largest city in Canada, among other attractions, so we didn’t have to go very far from home to see things 🙂

    I know what Kim and Linda mean about life balancing out. However, in spite of some very bad experiences in my childhood, it was still good due to my wonderful family. So, I hope my life doesn’t balance out in that way; so far, my siblings seem to have good marriages and homes.

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  24. Maybe I should have emphasized more that I realize that balancing act is not real. My last sentence was intended to make fun of myself for pretending to believe it.

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  25. I hope I have not offended Michelle or anyone who did not deserve a rant because my childhood was a tad bit on the lacking side in some areas. I know God uses our past experiences to make us empathetic to others. So I have a big heart for children who are not so blessed in material ways. I just wish I could figure out how to make life better for them. That was why, as you all may recall, I was feeling badly about keeping Bosley and supporting a cat when so. many children in the world are in need. Yes, I love having a cat, but it still at times seems self indulgent, but we don’t have to go back down that trail. I now accept that God chose to bless me at this time with Bosley. Again, He is good! 🙂

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  26. At first glance I thought that was a pussywillow…how I love pussywillows….my Grandmother had a huge one in her backyard..I’ve never seen a magnolia tree…I don’t think I have…do they grow in SC?
    My childhood was not perfect…but I do remember it as sweet…mostly. Typical 1950’s/60’s neighborhood…kids playing outdoors…coming home when the streetlights came on…Daddy working hard at General Motors to provide for his family…Mom staying home…watching soaps during the day…taking camping trip vacations in the summer….

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  27. That was my childhood! Kamiah grows Magnolia trees and the flowers are beautiful.

    It is that time of year. Just finished sterilizing a bunch of last years pots so I can get ready to start some seedlings for the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, beets, melons, and some other stuff. This year, if God is willing, I hope to provide enough vegies for the whole family for the year. Several of the children are on board with that. We shall see…. With milk production, egg production, meat production, and vegies, should be a fun year. Still waiting to see if the cow is pregnant.

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  29. I wrote a lengthy response, filling in a lot of background, and then thought better of it. I have to be careful what I say about my family.

    God uses our past for his purposes, the good and the bad. He knows the families he put us in (along with the children he gives us) and why. That answer may feel a little thin when you look back on your own life and dreams.

    I know I always wished Fred MacMurray had been my father.

    I’ve been blessed beyond measure and am thankful for the opportunities I’ve had. It was not my intention to gloat, but to tell a story and ask the question about art. If I’ve created a problem for anyone, I apologize. Please feel free to correct me.

    Unlike many of you, I did not grow up in a Christian home. That means I see the world through a slightly different angle–and my experiences reflect that. My husband’s military career, my Los Angeles connections, all the travel my greater family relishes, are avenues that God uses in my interactions with other people. I may very well be the only Christian my worldly family knows. My extensive travels often are an opening for wider ranging conversations with people.

    My past and relative sophistication give me the credentials that “forces” them to respect my life, particularly the spiritual aspect of it–they cannot dismiss me as unintelligent, untraveled, unlearned, or naive.

    I believe that God “salts” society with believers. There have to be Christian motorcycle riders, plumbers, doctors, singers, bridge players–so that God can be revealed to those who might hide from him in those arenas. We’re lights wherever we are planted and our job is to be Jesus to a broken world.

    That world often can best see Jesus in our personal brokenness. We have to be willing to be conduits of his grace and loving kindness–often using our past and who we are.

    I grew up on that trip to Europe when I was fourteen, I had to because of other things that happened. I came back a different teenager and it set me up for the truly significant event that happened fifteen months later when I first understood the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross. It put into motion relationships that are still being played out today.

    He doesn’t waste anything from our past, We just have to give it to him to use for his glory.

    Thanks be to God.

    BTW, it’s been gloriously raining here all day. Thanks to all who have prayed for California.
    .

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  30. I, too, want to see the birthday tree in bloom. I’m going to have to send in some pictures of the blooming shrubs around here when spring finally hits.

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  33. Some of this discussion has reminded me of the saying, Never judge your inside by someone else’s outside. Truth be told none of us had a Pollyanna childhood and those who think they did are delusional. Everything we experience helps to mold us into the person we are today. I think I had an awful childhood because my very ealiest memory is sitting on a swing set wishing I were someone else but realizing that I was already me and if I were somone else that would mean someone else would have to be me and I already knew how to be me so that is what I may as well be.
    Even with all that unhappiness, I can look at someone else and thankfully say I sure am glad I didn’t have their childhood.

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  36. I don’t think I’m delusional, but I think my childhood, while not perfect, was pretty amazing. I was given a legacy of Christian ancestors going back generations. My parents weren’t perfect, but they were committed to one another, loved their children, and taught us to love God. I had a warm house, reliable vehicles, enough food (although I heard tales in more recent years, of why we had fried spam for supper – I did not know that we were low on funds). I didn’t get to travel to many places, but always had holidays with extended family and fun cousins. I feel very blessed as I know I did not deserve any of it. I am so thankful that God allowed me to have this life and I hope that I will be able to bless others because of it. I did lose my mom at a relatively young age, which was hard (I was in my 30’s) but even that has enabled me to connect with others. I sometimes think that I am naive because of my life, but I’m also glad that I can be naive. When I hear of people like Kim who have had to overcome a rough start or have had to overcome other hardships, I greatly admire them and am thankful for the people that God put into their lives. It makes me so very very thankful for everything I have been given. Thank you for the reminder today.

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  37. I’ve been to Disney World three times. You spend an hour of mind numbing boredom, in 98 degree heat standing in line for 2 to 4 minutes of shear terror. Then you fight your way through crowds of hot, sweaty, irritable, fellow tourists to the next line. You do this three or four times until you have to decide weather to pay $15 for a hot dog and a small bag of chips or eat the cereal bar in your back pack. After three days of this, one member of your party will try to kill another. I actually overheard a women threaten to jab a plastic fork into her 12 year old son’s eye. Why do I keep going back? Some of those 2 to 4 minutes are pretty cool. 🙂

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  38. Michelle, when I said I felt a twinge of envy, it wasn’t because I resented your opportunities – it was more like, “Oh wow, cool! I wish I could have seen that!”. I am thankful for the childhood I had, and I can see how God brought good out of my bad experiences. Don’t stop sharing events from your life – you do not come across as boasting.

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  39. And that’s my point. Life balances. We except the past appreciate the now and look forward to the future. It is all in how you look at it. My past molded me into who I am today and hopefully tomorrow I will be better. The glass is always full sometimes all the way to the top with water and sometimes with air

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  42. Michelle – Reading this – “My past and relative sophistication give me the credentials that “forces” them to respect my life, particularly the spiritual aspect of it–they cannot dismiss me as unintelligent, untraveled, unlearned, or naive.” – made me almost laugh. Not laugh at you, but at the difference in what God has done in us.

    My brother & his family are the ones who would fit your description of yourself in that quote, except that they are very liberal & anti-Christian. Although Brother dropped out of college, he had a career in management. SIL & Niece each have Masters degrees (although I’m not really sure SIL actually got hers). As Niece was growing up, they traveled several times a year, including several trips to Europe throughout the years.

    As for me, although I am an avid reader, & have learned & researched on my own, I never went to college. I am untraveled. I’m not exactly unlearned, but they might think so. And yes, I am known for being naive.

    Niece got a job in her field (Social Work) right out of college. My daughters are behind in that part of their lives, although Emily is starting the practical nursing program next Monday. So they would seem to be the sophisticated & successful side of the family, & we are the “blue collar”, “uneducated” (not as much as they’d think) side of the family. (Actually, Lee has an Associates degree in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University.)

    (BTW, I hate the stereotypical view of “blue collar” people. We do not fit that stereotype, & neither do many other “blue collar” people.)

    Sometimes I wonder how God can use us to reach them for Him, especially since they have pretty much cut us out of their lives the past couple years (although SIL & I stay in touch occasionally via email). But I just have to have faith that He has a plan in this.

    I will admit that I am a bit embarrassed to tell you (& others here) that I don’t have a college education, because I know that some people would then view me as uneducated, & thus not too intelligent. (I don’t know my IQ, but a counselor in high school told me it was “well above average”.) But as I said, I am an avid reader, & love to learn.

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  43. My childhood was a mix of some bad stuff & some good stuff. I’ve learned to deal (with God’s help) with the bad, & be grateful for the good. As for traveling, our vacations were actually merely accompanying my dad on business trips. Except for a bit about New Orleans, I don’t even remember the trips.

    Raising our own daughters, we only had one vacation, & that was because my husband won it through his job. (We went to the Boston area for the week. It was nice.)

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  46. Isn’t it great the good Lord chose to put us all together on this Wandering Views vessel?

    What’s the verse about what God does with the ones people look on as foolish? I have always looked on that verse and thought that means God could even use me in some way! 🙂

    Michelle, I don’t know if you will see this, but your post was not gloating at all. For whatever reason I am just overly sensitive to the “inequalities” I see in the lives of children. And I hate that I have that sensitivity. It sounds like a, horrors, Dem attitude! Logically I have some understsnding of the whys but I guess I was emotionally wounded as a child by all the “haves” around me when I felt myself so often to be a “have not.” With my father gone awsy doing his time in the service, that alone was a giant “have not.” And my mother didn’t really drive so I had little opportunity to do much besides home and school. I did not even realize my family was “blue collar” until I had a roommate after college and her dad was a public health doctor and she made the distinction between blue collar and professional. That’s how naive I was about life.

    I am glad God is able to make use of all of us for His good purposes. I have often wondered why He made me as He did. I have learned, after a long time, to accept and embrace my uniqueness and realize He has a right to not let me in on why He made me like He made me. He has put certain passions, weaknesses and abilities in me for His good purposes.

    Again, I am sorry if I stepped on any toes. My super sensitivity relates back to childhood and goes forward to be compounded by what all I was unable to materially give my son and continues forward to the differences I see in the lives of children in my life now and ones I know of indirectly through ministries.

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  48. none of you seem to like to post in the middle of your night. Too bad, we could have a great conversation. I’m stalling as I don’t want to do all the transfers I still have left to do.

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