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Our Daily Thread 5-15-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1618 Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law. 

In 1918 regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service. 

In 1942 gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles. 

In 1948 Israel was attacked by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence. 

And in 1970 President Nixon appointed America’s first two female generals. 

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Quote of the Day

“Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.”

Lyman Frank Baum

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Since it’s L. Frank Baum’s birthday, we’ll start with a clip/song from the movie.

And it’s Graham Goble’s birthday too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

51 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-15-14”

  2. Good morning, all. Good evening, Jo!

    I’m still not completely packed. My goal is to leave by ten. I’m still drinking coffee, trying to wake up.

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  5. Beautiful flowers for today. Are they Bleeding Hearts? I really enjoyed the heron yesterday, too. I found a video of a heron eating a really big fish yesterday and tried to put it on here, but I could not get it to post. I also was glad to see how the cat saved the child from the demon dog.

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  6. There was a sticker on the windshield of every car indicating how much gas the car was allowed. The stickers were “A” , “B”, etc. But I forgot which got the most gas, nor what prevented a person from driving to another station for more gas.
    Nylons were invented for women’s stockings vice silk because the silk was used for parachutes.

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  10. It’s also Eddie Arnold’s BD.

    This was his theme song. But he was called “The Tennessee Plowboy”. Everything he did charted, close to the top.
    I got a Victoria’s Secret commercial before Eddie started to sing.

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  12. QoD: Most of my friends are close to my age–within a five year span either way. I’d like some older female friends that could act as mentors to me, but haven’t found any. I once asked a neighbor to be my mentor (she was a BSF leader) and she declined, saying she was too busy. It reminded me of the Veggie Tales song, “Busy, busy, we’re frightfully busy….Much, much too busy for you!” Later, I was glad she’d declined as every time I saw her, she’d tell me about all the “good works” she was doing.

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  13. When I was in school I had friends in a younger class. With my Dec. Birthday I was the youngest in my class and probably should have been kept back a year to be more in sync with classmares. One of those younger friends turns 60 today whereas I turned 60 in Dec. I know 6 months isn’t much difference, but being in different classes made it seem like a year’s difference. Now I tend to have more older friends at church. I appreciate their wisdom and kindness. Maybe they just have more time to reach out and show they care.

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  14. I’m more inclined to have older friends. For the ages of 15 to 17, we lived in a community where the nearest people in age to me (not counting one boy a couple years younger, just considering females) were girls four years younger, a college student about five years older who was only home on breaks and was painfully shy, and a married woman 11 years older. That 11-year-older woman became my friend, and so did a woman 15 years older whose daughter was my younger sister’s friend. I thought of the woman 15 years older as my best friend, but because she was fully twice my age, I never called her that to her face, thinking it probably wasn’t mutual. Several years later she called me that, though. She and I also had a third woman we did things with, just shy of 50 years my senior (my birthday is June, hers October) and thus my father’s age. And that woman ended up being very dear to me until she died three years ago after several years with Alzheimer’s. I thought of her as the grandmother I never had, but she never treated me as though I was a lot younger than she; we were just two women who liked to go out to lunch or go out to see wildlife, and who talked about the Lord.

    What was funny to me, after having a close friend 50 years older than me, was having one friend 19 years older who saw it as an almost insurmountable difference and then a friend nine years older who called herself a mother figure until I reminded her I had three brothers older than she was, so she was more like a big sister.

    I also have a few friends younger than me. Age matters very little in the reasons for friendship. But overall they’re more likely to be older.

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  15. Funny you should post that AJ. Yesterday at Women’s Council of Realtors the speech was given by a very successful woman who had always identified with the characters from this movie. She discovered a book written by Baums granddaughter who is a psychotherapist, entitled The Wisdom of Oz. We are all like Dorothy going through life. The Cowardly Lion just needed to claim his birthright as the King of the Jungle–just as we need to claim our birthright as Children of God. The Scarecrow always asked intelligent questions–he just needed confidence. The Tin Man lost parts of himself doing his job. The Flying Monkey’s? All the distracting things that come at us on a daily basis. The Poppy Field–where we end up when we try to take the shortcuts through life. The Munchkins? Small minded people who just do as they are told but really just go along. Water killed the Wicked Witch. Water usually symbolizes the Holy Spirit.
    I will have to order the book and read it and get back to you on it. A metaphor for life?

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  17. I experienced something yesterday that I haven’t had to deal with in years. I let my guard down and told someone here at work who my father was and where he worked. Her grandfather worked there as well, so she called her grandmother to find out if her grandparents knew my dad. The grandmother told her yes, her grandfather had worked with my dad. “Oh and honey that first wife of his was a nut-job!” This young woman is 31 and obviously doesn’t have a filter not to repeat to me exactly what her grandmother had said about my mother. I can’t hold it against her. This was repeated to me in front of another woman here are work. The only reply I could give was, “Yep. She was certifiable. She was a BAD alcoholic”.

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  18. I suspect I know where seven year old got his question of yesterday. It was not an out of the blue thing. At church on Sunday, the pastor mentioned that Paul was beheaded in prison because, as a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified. Good to know seven year old listens in church.

    Fairly certain I don’t have any friends. Though a couple of people come close and they are older than me. Several people who tell me their troubles but nobody I would say where we tell each other our troubles.

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  19. I think mostly older, but some younger too.

    I walked the dogs late last night, hoping it would be cooler, but it was still quite warm out — and I put in a restless night with lots of dreams (though I seemed to sleep well), but the house was still 85 degrees when I went to bed at 10. I just don’t tolerate heat well. Hoping it starts to break tomorrow. But today’s supposed to be the peak.

    Off to work early to watch the port commission meeting on live stream. Used to go to the meetings in person (it’s just a couple miles from my house), but easier really to watch it via computer so I can take typed notes and then be ready to write it up right away).

    Plus the office is air-conditioned. 😉

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  20. I have mostly older. My husband is almost seven years older than I am. He does music that is loved by more older people than younger. The people who are in the music jams we attend are both older and younger, but the audience is mostly older people.

    Kim, I found that interesting about the Oz books. There was a copy of The Wizard of Oz in the library of the Christian school my children attended for few years. One of the teachers objected. It startled me enough to read up more on the book and author. Of course, the whole thing of wizards and witches might be one objection. However, the author was a Theosophist. The good witch/bad witch fits in that form of Spiritualism. The good witch is who helps Dorothy many times and finally home. I don’t want my children following witches–good or bad.

    All this never made me forbid my children the movie or the book, but I sure talked to them about it. Many movies and books have lots of religious ideas in them. They all reflect their authors. Children miss a lot of that, as do many adults. Nevertheless, it all influences us in ways too subtle sometimes to even realize.

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  21. I like all the pictures.

    The bleeding heart photo is no exception. I received a plant from my mom years ago. I have given many away from it and replanted it in a few spots. I get way too many new plants, since I do not cut off the blooms. The hummingbirds love it, too.

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  22. Almost all of my friends are younger than I, but only slightly — within about 3 years of my age. My best friends in high school were also younger; they were juniors when I was a senior. One of my current best friends, though, a lady I haven’t met in person yet, but with whom I email fairly regularly and have spoken with on the phone, is 10 years my junior.

    I did have a good friend and mentor who was about 30 years older than I, but she died three years ago. There is a dear older lady in our church whom I consider to be a friend; she is very sweet and friendly, and always encourages me so in my homeschooling and family life. She stayed home to raise her children, and speaks with much gratitude towards God for His blessing of children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren in her life.

    A couple of years ago, there was a women’s Bible study at our church, organized by a woman in her late 20s, and attended by women of a wide variety of ages, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. It was a study on marriage, and was such a blessing. All of us got along very well, and we all learned from each other as we discussed the Word and shared our stories about our journeys in marriage. This was one of my favorite Bible studies I’ve ever attended, and our age differences, in one sense, just melted away, and in another sense, enhanced the discussion because of the variety in our ages, lengths of our marriages, and so on. I was very blessed to have been part of that group that summer.

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  24. 6 Arrows, it’s interesting that you mentioned the younger woman being the group leader. My church did a study about using money wisely, budgeting and basically the Biblical parameters around that. I felt reluctant to take the course from a young couple because I felt their point in life would be so different from mine. I know the Biblical principles would be the same, but concerns would be quite different. Would anyone else feel that it would be awkward to be in such a class?

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  25. When my wife and I set down roots in a new state and started making new friends, we gravitated toward people in the same stage of family life as we, married just a handful of years and starting to have children. But we had gotten a late start (34 and 38 when we got married), so our friends were mostly 5-10 years younger.

    Some of the people we looked up to as “mentors” were our own age, but were ten years ahead of us blazing trails as homeschooling parents.

    As our children now move into adulthood and don’t determine so much of what we do, we might find that more of our new friends are our age.

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  27. Health issues, Medicare, retirement planning stage, college expense coverage for children, housing costs, priorities being downsizing instead of moving to something bigger, costs of dependents, etc. All the externals are so different from my perspective, but I know internally there would be much that would be the same.

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  28. Janice, if it were me, I wouldn’t hesitate or feel awkward to be in a Bible class led by someone much younger than I if I knew they were well rooted in Scripture. Though in most Bible classes there will be discussion on how to apply the scriptural principles studied, obviously Scripture trumps human experience. I think it’s very possible for an individual, or couple, or whomever may be leading, to do well as a facilitator, even if he/she/they have less life experience in the subject area covered than some of the participants may have. (This is where it’s also good to have participants of varying experience, IMO, where members of the group can learn from each other — I don’t think all the iimparting of knowledge needs to come from the leader.) A good facilitator will know when to “step out of the way”, so to speak, to allow the discussion to flow, and have good instincts on when and why to step back in, for example, if discussion lags, or starts to get off-base scripturally, or when summarizing is in order, or what have you.

    Some younger people are quite skilled in these areas (having good leadership skills), and are quite biblically knowledgeable, with wisdom beyond their years.

    This was the case with the leader of the women’s Bible study I mentioned above. She is wise beyond her years (I knew that to be true before I joined the study), and though she had only been married I think 7 years at that point, her scripture knowledge is quite extensive, and she certainly demonstrated sound doctrine on her understanding of what the Bible has to say on marriage. She led the discussion quite well, and had a good blend of time spent in the Word and time allowed for discussion on application, sharing personal experiences with each other, and so on.

    It’s interesting, too, that, though she was relatively young (I think she was turning 30 sometime around the time of the study), her husband is quite a bit older; I believe she said he was maybe 44 at that time. Not too common an age difference between husband and wife, but considering her wisdom and maturity, the differences between her husband (who is also a solid Christian and a Bible teacher, as well) and herself are not as stark as one would think. But being that he would have more life experiences than she by virtue of his age, some of what he’d learned in life would perhaps serve to increase her knowledge in areas she might not have yet experienced.

    All in all, she brought a level of maturity to the discussion that proved to be a very fruitful, biblically-based experience for all of us.

    And as we know from here, God can certainly use the younger ones among us to stimulate our thinking in Biblical directions. 🙂

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  29. soooo….. we were discussing making the new calf a bucket calf because it is still not sucking properly but is drinking out of the water trough, which we need to discourage as water does not have the same benefits as milk. Anyway, seventeen year old girl went out to milk the cow and when she returned, I asked her if she had given the calf some. She said no because the calf had some earlier when she squirted the milk at it. I asked what she had done with the milk and she said she had fed it to the chickens. I tried to explain to her that bucket calves need milk in a bucket to drink. Her brother piped up that “Bucket calves don’t eat buckets, you know”. Girl got a shocked look on her face and an oh yeah moment. It was hilarious. Never dull around here.

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  30. Of course one needs to be cautious about having a younger person teaching, just as one needs to be cautious in having an older person teaching. Many are solid in church teaching and lacking in Bible teaching. And many of the younger are solid in world teaching and not so in Bible teaching. But, we are not to look down on the younger if they are solid in their teaching.

    But your question is more about the surrounding stuff. Sort of like my non existent friendship with other folk with children. ( Like Kevin said, finding folk with similar situations, which I have not found as I am nearing sixty with small children. I could mingle with grandparents raising grandchildren, but that leaves off the part of my seventeens and sixteens.) It is difficult to relate to people with a totally different cultural experience.

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  32. I am at least ten years younger than the next younger woman in my Bible study and I’m the leader. Sometimes I think they consider me an idiot savant Bible study leader, but I’ve been teaching them for over a dozen years now, so they’ve gotten used to me.It’s wonderful to study with women who have walked with the Lord for 60, 70 and even 80 years and their insights are often wonderful.

    We also have women who still don’t understand the things of God the same way I do, and that provokes conversation as well.

    The missionary living with us now is my children’s age, but she has a degree in Bible from Multnomah, and we have no qualms about asking her opinion on Scripture passages.

    The Young moms at our church would love to have an older woman join them, and I’ve been invited, but I work on Monday mornings so it hasn’t happened. I think we can benefit from having all sorts in our classes and age should not be a disqualifier as long as everyone respects each other.

    As to friends, we have them of all ages, though there’s a large contingent in our church of people within ten years of either side of our age and that’s who usually invites us to social gatherings. I seem to have a number of friends my kids’ age, as well, partly because I work with them in one guise or another.

    For 20 years of my life, we only knew people our own age. You could always tell if a grandparent was visiting Navy housing because of their age. For a long time, I was the youngest woman in a crowd–particularly playing bridge. I’ve learned from all and cherish friends of all ages and I’m totally charmed now that the children of my friends also welcome me into their lives. Facebook helps with that. 🙂

    Back to the war.

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  33. Good…afternoon….while it’s still a tad bit cool here…and we did awaken to a bit of fresh snow on the deck furniture….the sun is shining and it is warming. I had a nice morning walk with my neighbor and friend…she is 10 years older than me…we get along famously 🙂
    I tend to have friends my age…but a couple of my closest friends are 7 years younger than me…they have what my granny would refer to as “old souls” 🙂

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  34. I feel like I have been adopted as a friend by the older gals in my church. Love to speak in their Sunday school class. I am very blessed to be supported by some widows and praise God for them. I even took a 2 day trip to Mount Hermon with one gal and was very blessed. Joining a Bible study in my church has helped me make new friends too. Before I always went to BSF, which grounded me in the Word, but I did not make friends in the same way.

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  35. Hello. We arrived safely and are now waiting for the graduation ceremony to begin. It’s still almost an hour until start time, and if the graduates receive their diplomas in the order listed in the program, then 2nd Arrow will get hers quite late in the program. There are four and one-fourth pages of names of graduates, four columns per page printed in very small type, and 2nd Arrow’s name appears in the first column on page four. Awarding of diplomas, of course, follows numerous other things on the program. Prayers that our youngest two will be patient throughout are most welcome!

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  36. I can’t believe this weather. I am back in a hoodie jacket. It’s very cool and windy. Bosley has rediscovered her overstuffed warm couch (me).

    I am making some corn pudding in the crock pot. It’s a new to me old recipe. We will soon see if it is any good or too good.

    I hope Michelle is recovering from her fall. That sounded so painful. Also, I hope the writing is going smoothly. Looking forward to buying that book!

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  37. Thanks, Janice. Feeling better, much better, but won’t return to Zumba before Monday. Bending forward makes the ribs hurt. So I’m doing a lot of walking. My husband and I are about to go out for a walk right now! 🙂

    Rewriting/revising is coming along. I’m wondering if it will really take me a full day for each chapter (as it has the last three days). I have 52 chapters . . . . and about two months to finish!

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  38. Good to hear michelle’s feeling better.

    We survived what is supposed to be the last day of our heat wave, temps should drop considerably tomorrow and over the weekend, with the return of our cool ocean breeze. But the fires to the south of us continue to rage — the weather change should give firefighters a break on that, though.

    As someone said today at work, we really are pretty spoiled when it comes to weather out here and tend to complain when temperatures go too far up or down (especially up).

    Last weekend I ran into a woman I knew from BSF and hadn’t seen in a while, she tells me they’ve brought in some additional studies — Isaiah and (for the first time next year) Revelation.

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  40. Not familiar with Precepts, though I know a woman who taught it at a former church I belonged to (but it was a daytime thing so we working women couldn’t really go).

    But with regard to Revelation, I remember the woman who first got me involved in BSF saying she only hoped they’d never delve into Revelation. 🙂 BSF strives to be non-denominational and so they’re often walking a tightrope in dealing with sections of Scripture on which Christians have genuinely different views. Revelation will be tough.

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  41. They’re both excellent but when I took BSF in the early 90s it was very rigid. Had to wear a skirt, among other things. I discovered how rebellious ai was at BSF.

    Precepts taught me a unique way to take apart the verse, which I still use. If I had to choose, I probably take Precepts first.

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  42. The skirt requirement was only for the people in leadership, not for any of those who attended. They could (and did) wear anything they wanted. 🙂

    In retrospect, my gripe with BSF would be the “rules” that the notes never be shared with anyone on the outside, including one’s pastor. That always bothered me, seemed like it was usurping the primary role of the church.

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  43. as I said, BSF grounded me in the Word and got me into the habit of daily study. The rules are no longer rigid and are a blessing. They don’t let you use commentaries, but let the Word explain itself. So you can use cross references. I loved that when you read a verse you would also read anywhere else the story occurred, as in the gospels.

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  44. Thanks for the comments on the differences between Precepts and BSF. I have one of the older Bibles used for the Precepts study which I thought I may get involved in at some future time.

    The cool weather transformed Bosley into the romper cat. She runs wildly through the house playing with her toys in the night.

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  45. Already made my warming and waking pot of coffee (all two cups worth). The heat came on a bit ago. Good thing I never switched over to air conditioning. Feeling sorry for the plants outside going from scorching to chilling like this weird weather dictates. Birds are singing their wakeup songs right now.

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  46. oh, so you are just going to continue this thread. You should at least say good morning! I enjoy waiting for you all each evening to join the end of my day.

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  50. Jo, I always catch up on the old thread. But having read yesterday’s now, I will not return to it.
    I will now read the prayer and politics thread and then move on to whatever Aj has for us today.

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