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Our Daily Thread 8-11-14

Good Morning!

Changed the header photo again. 🙂

And here’s one of this bird taking off, it’s a bit blurred.

8-9-14 virginia 117

On this day in 1877 the two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall.

In 1896 Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain. 

In 1934 Alcatraz received federal prisoners for the first time. 

In 1951 the first major league baseball game to be televised in color was broadcast.

And in 1984 President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”  

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Quote of the Day

“Writing for children is an art in itself, and a most interesting one.”

Enid Blyton

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 Today is Jim Kale’s birthday.

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Anyone have a QoD?

48 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-11-14”

  1. Good morning everyone.
    It’s Monday!
    Not going to the Y this morning. I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist at 9:30 and it would push it too close.

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  5. Karen, I wrote a post last night but this morning I see that it didn’t post. Basically I asked if you might not find it better if you got off Facebook. You might find that you didn’t miss it, and it doesn’t sound like anyone is taking anything from your input. You’re stressing yourself out needlessly.

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  7. I think she’s in a complicated situation, Cheryl. She’s trying to keep tabs on how to pray for her own child by following the influencers. Probably the best advice is to go undercover as it were–read and not engage, so she’ll know how to pray.

    One of our dear relatives has also displayed unhinged political reactions on FB. I say nothing, but my heart breaks anyway and he hardly spends any time with us anymore– I suspect some of that is because how he perceives us, whether true or not.

    20-something kids are at interesting junctures– trying to figure out who they are and how to put together a life. In times as hopeless as the present, it’s got to be discouraging and frightening.

    I’d guess Karen’s young friend is ingesting an unhealthy diet of politics and aggrieved victim mentality from the media. Combining that with a stuck life going nowhere must be very hard. So she lashes out at the one group that won’t cut off her head . . .

    It’s hard to love in the spitting face of hate, yet that’s what Jesus sometimes causes us to do.

    I grieve my relative when he’s not around (easy these days) and pray when I read the worst slaps on FB.

    But you’re correct, sometimes when the hurt is too painful, it’s helpful to step away. 😦

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  8. I hardly post anything on FB anymore. I use it to check out what is going on and to message friends. The best thing to do with some people is say “I cannot have this conversation with you at this time” or “You may be right”. You also may be as dumb as a fence post.

    It is 9:34 and my day has already been such that I give up. I just give up. Today I want to go home, curl up in my bed with my dog and cry. Once again I don’t have that luxury.

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  10. But I do block or unfriend some people that continue to irritate me, despite they’re needing to hear the truth. They just aren’t going to listen to me.

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  13. Politics and FB can be volatile. But it also provides opportunities for engagement (though many aren’t open to that). My pastor and a couple of my elders use it very effectively and sometimes generate long threads of thoughtful discussion.

    It’s also interesting to me to see how people think about issues. And it can be a glimpse into who people really are — like the former school teacher and government attorney I know who are prone to colorful, very left-leaning political rants, seemingly fueled by much anger (and lots of all-caps). 🙂 Wow.

    Coyotes ran today and I was relieved we were able to get the headline changed at the last minute last night.

    The woman who gave us the amazing photos that wound up being used by all our sister papers as well would have flipped if the original layout was left standing. It featured (on a1) her close-up shot of a coyote licking his chops with the large print headline above that read: “Your dog’s worst enemy” (one of the anecdotes from outside the area was about a large siberian husky who was killed in his backyard by several coyotes).

    The new headline was a bit tamer: Meet the new neighbors

    I thought the story was very even-handed but it took a while to gain the woman’s trust that this wouldn’t be a coyote hit piece before she agreed to send us her photos. The first layout & headline — using her photo — would have not gone over well with her. 😉

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  14. Cheryl,

    I was a little disappointed about not catching a snakehead. I viewed it as a once (OK, third) in a lifetime opportunity. But while going thru my pics last night it occurred to me that I had in fact had a once (turned into twice) in a lifetime opportunity. I got to take pics of birds we don’t have around here and that I may never see again. I got to listen to them, see them, watch them hunt successfully, and eat. I didn’t get the fish I wanted, but I still got my wish, an experience I’ll never forget. 🙂

    Plus I got pics of snakes, one on a rock and one hunting in the shallows, turtles, lizards, and numerous birds, some I won’t see around here. And a whole flock of goldfinches. 🙂

    Did you see the pic that was up last night? That’s one of my favorites. 🙂

    And I got some great pics of a whole flock of turkey buzzards who were roosting in the tree 20 feet above me. Never had that happen before. 🙂

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  17. Donna, thanks for the coyote article. Are they mostly showing up in communities near the mountains? I lived for most of ’75-’93 near the foot of the San Gabriels (Pasadena/Altadena), and never saw a coyote.

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  18. Well, Kevin, they’re actually showing up at the beach these days. They’ve extended their reach significantly. We have sister papers in Pasadena/San Gab areas and they are definitely there as well. We have a peninsula where they’ve been for years — now they’re migrating down into the beach cities. They’ve been seen in many of the local parks near where I live and I remember seeing one trotting down the sidewalk maybe 8 years ago now, right across the street from my house. “That’s not a dog,” I remember thinking to myself …

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  19. Karen O, Matthew 7:6 applies to your situation with YF. She is taking the pearls of wisdom you’re giving her and trampling them under foot, then turning back on you and tearing you apart. She does not show, from what I gather of what you’ve said here, any evidence of a teachable heart at this time.

    Continue to pray for her, but walk away from any more conversation with her, even non-confrontational words like the examples you’ve given (“What do you mean by this…?”, etc.). Until the Holy Spirit grabs hold of her heart, she will be unreachable.

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  21. Mohler: “The Bible makes clear that the pattern of history in a fallen world is of the rising and falling of nations. There are no permanent empires. There are no enduring kingdoms. The only permanent and enduring, indeed eternal kingdom, is that which would to be brought in full at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

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  22. A bear alert in our community. In the e-mail visit I mentioned above (1:59), there was a notice of a bear sighting in a neighbor’s yard at 7:30 this morning.
    I don’t want no bears around here.

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  24. We get bears to the north of us (in the neighborhoods Kevin mentioned), but none where I live yet. 🙂 We have had rumors (and some evidence several years back) of at least 1-2 mountain lions, but nothing lately.

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  26. The coyotes around here are mangy, small things, not often seen. We get more bears though. With 2 rivers. half a dozen creeks, and lots of woods in the area, you get wildlife. It’s best to learn to live with ’em, and they are fun to see, at a reasonable and safe distance of course. 🙂

    Cheryl,

    Yes, I never got one just taking flight like that. He was on the post with the other and took off at just the right time. 🙂 It looked like he was falling.

    I also got one of a buzzard taking flight directly off a branch 20 ft above me. Ugly as they are, there’s something beautiful in one taking flight and opening it’s wings. Probably 4 and half, 5 feet across tip to tip. If that thing was more inclined to live prey, it would be quite formidable. 😯

    Ok, now I’m off to play with the header photo. 🙂

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  28. Oh, my. I’m kind of surprised to come on today & find all these comments about my comment from last night.

    Let me assure you all that I am not particularly stressed by what YF posts. (I used to be, though.) Sometimes I am a bit dismayed by her attitude (as was mentioned, she has an undue influence on my Chrissy), but I have learned to not obsess over that.

    Re-reading last night’s comment, I see how it can sound like I was upset, but I wasn’t. I shared it more with the attitude of “can you believe this stuff?” Sort of shaking my head at it.

    I have cut way back on commenting on YF’s stuff. There are so many things I am tempted to comment on, but I know that it will do no good. (Pearls before swine, as was mentioned.) I find that my comments are usually in defense of people, like pro-lifers, whom she thinks are horrible people. Sometimes I’m just trying to get her to look at something a little differently, see another perspective. Unfortunately, she is so deeply entrenched in her own rightness that she can’t see any nuance.

    There have been a few times when I have made a comment that she could not dispute, in which case she just does not bother to respond. For instance, when she pointed out that society has already “redefined marriage” since we no longer consider wives as chattel, & we’ve outlawed polygamy. Appealing to the Christian in her, I said that God has never redefined marriage, & quoted from Matthew 19 (“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife…”) She did not reply at all.

    Recently she posted something about “traditional marriage” according to the Bible, & the poster had verses from some of the more puzzling parts of the Old Testament (like a rapist having to marrying his victim). Rather than trying to “defend” God, I acknowledged that there are a lot of things in the OT that are puzzling, but what Jesus said about marriage was…& again quoted from Matthew 19. Again, no reply. (And she doesn’t easily let a subject go.)

    I pray that those pesky verses, that give no quarter to same-sex marriage, will work their way into her heart, & make her re-think her views, & change her heart.

    She seems to really love Jesus, & believe in the Bible. But she has a view of Jesus “being all about love & equality”, & believes that He would allow & bless same-sex marriage. While in college, she went to a church that taught that the verses condemning homosexuality don’t mean what they seem to mean. (I’m sure you’ve all heard how those verses are twisted.) But one cannot get around the fact that Jesus referenced that God made us male & female, & that marriage is between one man & one woman.

    I pray that the Holy Spirit will speak to her through my continuing to bring up those verses, when appropriate.

    I also try to be an example to her, by commenting & responding as politely, graciously, & maturely as possible, especially when she goes on a rant, or throws verbal darts at me. I’ve noticed that she often “calms down” when I reply that way rather than taking the bait to respond in kind.

    But yes, I definitely need to use wisdom on when to comment & when to keep “quiet”. And I have been trying to do that more & more, so I have been commenting on her stuff less & less.

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  29. “I also try to be an example to her, by commenting & responding as politely, graciously, & maturely as possible, especially when she goes on a rant, or throws verbal darts at me. I’ve noticed that she often “calms down” when I reply that way rather than taking the bait to respond in kind.”

    Interesting how that works. 😉

    A soft answer turns away wrath.

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  31. Here in my little town in northeastern Connecticut (small town population-wise, but large land-wise) we have coyotes & an occasional bear, as well as deer & some other wildlife. Our town is considered to be rural-suburban. It’s a nice little town.

    Recently, a lady who moved here from a big city in Utah posted on the town’s Facebook page about how nice & helpful the people are here, & that if they can’t help you, they’ll find someone who can.

    Not bad for a bunch of Yankees! 🙂

    (I live in the northeast section of Connecticut, which is in southern New England, but still a part of the Northeast U.S.. 🙂 )

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  34. Karen, if you can reply gently (and occasionally) without getting stressed out, then it might well help her see her blind spots over time. And it may help others who are reading to see that there is more than one viewpoint. Just doesn’t seem worth getting stressed over!

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  35. Homeschoolers: a day or two ago I posted a request for “aid” for any interested homeschoolers in a project I’m trying to develop. I don’t want to go into details on here, but anyone who is interested can e-mail me. Especially if you have children who are interested in animals. I’m not asking for a big time commitment, but I would like to have several families involved, if I can.

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  42. Cheryl, I saw your request to homeschoolers, but am unable to think about adding anything new to my/our family’s plate with making plans for piano students to start returning to our home. One new thing is about all we can handle.

    Sorry.

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  43. Cheryl – When YF & I first began our “discussions”, I would get stressed about her attitudes & views, because I had never realized she thought & believed the way she does, & I could see the influence she has on my daughter. But I’ve backed away a lot over time, & learned to roll my eyes, shake my head, but not comment most of the time. I am careful about what I comment on, & how I express myself.

    And she & her sister are in my prayers every day.

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  44. Speaking of FB, a friend today (a Christian who’s a former classmate but one who supports gay marriage) posted this today: “Sometimes the nicest people you meet are covered in tattoos. Sometimes the most judgmental people you meet go to church on Sundays.”

    Lots of folks *liked* that post, including another former classmate friend who says she believes but refuses to go to church (because of all the hypocrites, you know).

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  45. Very sad about Robin Williams. I was not a particular fan, but saw many of his movies and enjoyed his acting (Good Will Hunting, etc.) and comedic abilities (RV) … Although he lost me sometimes when he wigged out too much doing improvise.

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  46. Something to ponder.

    “When God wills to punish a people or a kingdom, he takes away from it the good and godly teachers and preachers, and bereaves it of wise, godly, and honest rulers and counselors, and of brave, upright, and experienced soldiers, and of good men.” Martin Luther

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  48. And while we immediately think of our struggling nation when we read that quote, much more is this the case in places like Syria and Iraq?

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