😦 Sick in bed with what seems to be gastroenteritis.
🙂 Got 100% in my final English/writing exam.
😦 The examiner has not yet received my final History exam, which could mean I won’t get that mark before the application deadline for the program I want to enter. I’ve decided to go ahead and apply anyway, as I have a course I took several years ago that might be a substitute. Still, it would be nice to get this one done too.
😦 See? January. It’s always such a dreary time of the year …
🙂 But it is Saturday. I have so much I want to get done today, starting with a bangs trim, stocking up on pet food — and then, the big chore, picking up around here & cleaning the bathroom. Would also like to get the dogs out to the cliffs, we haven’t been in a while (which is crazy, it’s literally a 5 minute drive).
🙂 Got a very nice shout-out in the most recent company newsletter from the publisher regarding our Rose Parade/Zamperini coverage. And they used the “good” pic of me. 🙂
😦 Elvera can’t get used to her smartphone. She wants to PUNCH the icons.
they don’t want to be punched, they want to be touched.
She really never uses it, except as a cell phone.
😦 Still bummed from this morning about Kim’s news.
😦 The day has not improved. Just had a conversation with someone I love at church who is physically hurting (nerve surgery slated for Jan 28), emotionally hurting (and I stepped right into it), and spiritually weak thus ready to leave our church.
😦 She also was shamefully treated by the church bully whom many in leadership have tried to rein in without much success–that we can see.
😦 All these people are mission fields within the church and I know their relationship to Jesus is weak–but it still makes it hard.
😦 Particularly when today’s hurt lamb lashed out at another lamb who is hurting about other issues just as much and that’s partly why she slipped up and hurt the first lamb.
😦 I don’t even care if I don’t make any sense.
😦 I’m having trouble shaking off all this hurt myself, and thus am cranky. And tired, too.
:-I So I hand it to God and say, “what do I do with all this?”
:-I I vented a bit with my long-suffering husband who has been pulled through the ringer by the bully more times than we can count, and he was sympathetic, but . . .
:-I Mission field. We are called to love them. To take the hits. To love them and be gentle in the midst of their slashing.
Should I just go to the movies and forget it all, hoping peace at least for me will be restored tomorrow?
And just keep praying for my lambs. Too many hurts; the body of Christ needs us to love one another and not seek reasons to be hurt.
She said with all the fingers pointing back at her. 😦
Michelle – In what way is “the church bully” a bully? And, although it is one thing for a strong Christian to “take the hits. To love them and be gentle in the midst of their slashing,” what about the weaker lambs being slashed? Does anyone stick up for them, or acknowledge to the victims that this bully can be mean? (Not sure how to phrase that, but what I mean is – acknowledge to a victim that the bully’s words were hurtful & wrong or unnecessary or whatever.)
In our former church, there was a lady who was quite quick with hurtful comments, & her husband could be much the same way. After they left, the pastor’s wife mentioned to me that they’d left a lot of destruction behind them. How should a church deal with that kind of thing?
Also, in the spirit of speaking the truth in love, shouldn’t the bully be confronted with the pain he is causing? And if he does not repent & change, but continues to hurt his brothers & sisters in Christ, shouldn’t something a little tougher be done, but still in the spirit of truth & love?
Somewhat related, but not exactly, to the above, I had a bad situation with the pastor who recently left. If I wasn’t a mature enough Christian, knowing that God wanted me to stay put in this church, I would have left over it. Unfortunately, many people did leave, including at least a couple who were considered pillars of the church.
Our interim pastor is wonderful, & I have a renewed sense of peace as I worship in this church. I hadn’t even realized I was lacking a sense of peace until I felt it back again.
My “That’s good” was for Michelle, but it is good that you got some things done today, Donna. 🙂
As for your Bible reading, would it be better to not try to cram in seven days of reading, but let yourself go over the allotted time to finish the Bible? Maybe take a year & a half or two years to finish it? There’ve been a few times I’ve read the Bible through in a year, but also times I divided it up over two years, or with no timetable at all.
😦 I realized this week that my upgraded phone automatically records the # of steps I take in the course of the day (as long as the phone is physically on me somewhere, which it usually is, but no always). It appears that I’m way below the recommended # of steps. Gotta step it up.
Church ‘bullies’ — maybe not the best term, but I was in a church where one particular (very opinionated) elder ruled with an iron fist, especially once our long-time pastor retired. 😦 They often mean well, but they can, and do, cause strife.
I like the smartphone. Except the Verizon bill is about three times the previous one.
Elvera doesn’t try. She checks the weather and makes calls on it. That’s about it.
Neither of us text. I see no need in that. To communicate directly, I talk.
I do have a problem with it. I don’t have it on my WiFi. I need to enter a password to get on my WiFi. My password has a % in it. I can’t find it on the keyboard. I can pull up the numbers, but not a %. The % is on the calculator, but I can’t get from the calculator back to my entry.
Church bullies are painful though they do believe they are doing the Lord’s work. At our last church we were good friend’s with the church bully, and we just ignored his garbage. Until we found out he was running the same stuff on our children who were unable to discern and let it go if it was not Truth. He cleared a lot of folk out of the church with his harsh and condescending words. It had been dealt with before and was dealt with in a stronger way when we had our misadventures with him. We should have spoken up sooner.
I should have called him Inspector Javert, rather than a bully. I don’t think he realized the effect he had on a woman who was in pain, sensitive and just trying to do her volunteer work for the church. The fact he was wrong in everything he said and did only added to the pain.
I will say, our fire safety program is better for his concern, we have trained AED workers and he conscienciously mows the lawn every week. He doesn’t bother me, but his rigidity has been a challenge for many.
Has anyone else considered that the “church bully” just may be one of those “wolves in sheep’s clothing”? Not everyone who attends church regularly is a true believer in the Lord. Even some deacons and elders are lost sinners who don’t realize it because they were baptized at a young age and never really had a salvation experience.
So, pray for the bully and let God handle him/her unless you have a clear word to speak out.
Peter, I’m not sure that “baptized at a young age” has much to do with anything. I was baptized at a young age (five), but I was a believer. And many Christians baptize their children younger still (in infancy), but teach them that baptism doesn’t save.
Meanwhile, many churches that don’t believe in infant baptism teach all sorts of things about how you’re saved if you pray some specific words and “you really mean it,” leading some people to pray the prayer many times in hopes that they “mean it” enough this time. They base salvation on human experience and human “doing” (mustering up enough faith) and not on Jesus’ work on the cross. What age a child is baptized has nothing to do with this. You can be baptized without being saved or saved without being baptized, and you can falsely believe that your own deeds have any power at all in the matter.
The wolves in Paul’s day would have been circumcised as children (the Jews among them, anyway) but not baptized as children, but they were still wolves.
Wandering Views 
😦 Too bummed by Kim’s news.
LikeLike
😦 Me too.
LikeLike
😦 Sick in bed with what seems to be gastroenteritis.
🙂 Got 100% in my final English/writing exam.
😦 The examiner has not yet received my final History exam, which could mean I won’t get that mark before the application deadline for the program I want to enter. I’ve decided to go ahead and apply anyway, as I have a course I took several years ago that might be a substitute. Still, it would be nice to get this one done too.
LikeLike
😦 See? January. It’s always such a dreary time of the year …
🙂 But it is Saturday. I have so much I want to get done today, starting with a bangs trim, stocking up on pet food — and then, the big chore, picking up around here & cleaning the bathroom. Would also like to get the dogs out to the cliffs, we haven’t been in a while (which is crazy, it’s literally a 5 minute drive).
🙂 Got a very nice shout-out in the most recent company newsletter from the publisher regarding our Rose Parade/Zamperini coverage. And they used the “good” pic of me. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
😦 My husband has been sick.
😦 I’ve had too much work to do.
🙂 I have a lot of paying work, and that never happens in January. I mean, this is my twelfth year of freelance and this is my first busy January.
🙂 The snow is melting!
😦 My life isn’t very exciting, is it?
🙂 I’m content, and that matters a whole lot more than excitement.
LikeLike
😦 Elvera can’t get used to her smartphone. She wants to PUNCH the icons.
they don’t want to be punched, they want to be touched.
She really never uses it, except as a cell phone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
😦 Still bummed from this morning about Kim’s news.
😦 The day has not improved. Just had a conversation with someone I love at church who is physically hurting (nerve surgery slated for Jan 28), emotionally hurting (and I stepped right into it), and spiritually weak thus ready to leave our church.
😦 She also was shamefully treated by the church bully whom many in leadership have tried to rein in without much success–that we can see.
😦 All these people are mission fields within the church and I know their relationship to Jesus is weak–but it still makes it hard.
😦 Particularly when today’s hurt lamb lashed out at another lamb who is hurting about other issues just as much and that’s partly why she slipped up and hurt the first lamb.
😦 I don’t even care if I don’t make any sense.
😦 I’m having trouble shaking off all this hurt myself, and thus am cranky. And tired, too.
:-I So I hand it to God and say, “what do I do with all this?”
:-I I vented a bit with my long-suffering husband who has been pulled through the ringer by the bully more times than we can count, and he was sympathetic, but . . .
:-I Mission field. We are called to love them. To take the hits. To love them and be gentle in the midst of their slashing.
Should I just go to the movies and forget it all, hoping peace at least for me will be restored tomorrow?
And just keep praying for my lambs. Too many hurts; the body of Christ needs us to love one another and not seek reasons to be hurt.
She said with all the fingers pointing back at her. 😦
LikeLiked by 2 people
Michelle – In what way is “the church bully” a bully? And, although it is one thing for a strong Christian to “take the hits. To love them and be gentle in the midst of their slashing,” what about the weaker lambs being slashed? Does anyone stick up for them, or acknowledge to the victims that this bully can be mean? (Not sure how to phrase that, but what I mean is – acknowledge to a victim that the bully’s words were hurtful & wrong or unnecessary or whatever.)
In our former church, there was a lady who was quite quick with hurtful comments, & her husband could be much the same way. After they left, the pastor’s wife mentioned to me that they’d left a lot of destruction behind them. How should a church deal with that kind of thing?
LikeLike
Also, in the spirit of speaking the truth in love, shouldn’t the bully be confronted with the pain he is causing? And if he does not repent & change, but continues to hurt his brothers & sisters in Christ, shouldn’t something a little tougher be done, but still in the spirit of truth & love?
LikeLike
Somewhat related, but not exactly, to the above, I had a bad situation with the pastor who recently left. If I wasn’t a mature enough Christian, knowing that God wanted me to stay put in this church, I would have left over it. Unfortunately, many people did leave, including at least a couple who were considered pillars of the church.
Our interim pastor is wonderful, & I have a renewed sense of peace as I worship in this church. I hadn’t even realized I was lacking a sense of peace until I felt it back again.
LikeLike
Many people are praying and dealing with this. There is much more going on. Perhaps I used the wrong word. I’m a sinner myself, however. 😦
LikeLike
😦 Ugh, church bullies.
🙂 Got some things done in the house today, which is progress!
😦 🙂 Missed the cliffs, but did get the dogs to the dog park for an outing.
😦 Trying to catch up (story of my life) on 7 days of the daily Bible reading tonight. Honestly, I just can’t seem to nail that task.
LikeLike
That’s good.
LikeLike
My “That’s good” was for Michelle, but it is good that you got some things done today, Donna. 🙂
As for your Bible reading, would it be better to not try to cram in seven days of reading, but let yourself go over the allotted time to finish the Bible? Maybe take a year & a half or two years to finish it? There’ve been a few times I’ve read the Bible through in a year, but also times I divided it up over two years, or with no timetable at all.
The important thing is to read it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh, yes, Karen, of course. That makes a lot of sense.
But I sometimes don’t have good sense.
I’m one of those driven ones … 😦 I WILL DO THIS.
Annie’s over the moon tonight on catnip, kicking & scurrying over the throw rugs, playing with her jingle-bell stuffed rat, really out of her mind.
Saturday. Woo-hoo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t imagine what a church bully would be like.
Donna, she doesn’t call it her phone. She says “that little orange thing”.
I think she wants he phone back. But that’s gone.
LikeLiked by 2 people
😦 Elvera and her little orange thing – hope she gets used to it soon
😦 Church bullies – Matthew 18: 15 to 18 comes to mind as they are brothers/sisters
🙂 Feeling much better today
🙂 Therapeutic (migraine) massage today!!! I felt so much better after the first one
🙂 Thankful for a 7th Day Adventist friend who works on Sundays (massage therapist) and doesn’t do what I call “voodoo” while working on patients
😦 I’ve had a therapist who tried that garbage – good thing I had only booked a half hour – never went back!
😦 Missing church again today due to yesterday’s horrible migraine
LikeLike
Chas 🙂
So how are you liking the smartphone?
😦 I realized this week that my upgraded phone automatically records the # of steps I take in the course of the day (as long as the phone is physically on me somewhere, which it usually is, but no always). It appears that I’m way below the recommended # of steps. Gotta step it up.
Church ‘bullies’ — maybe not the best term, but I was in a church where one particular (very opinionated) elder ruled with an iron fist, especially once our long-time pastor retired. 😦 They often mean well, but they can, and do, cause strife.
LikeLike
I like the smartphone. Except the Verizon bill is about three times the previous one.
Elvera doesn’t try. She checks the weather and makes calls on it. That’s about it.
Neither of us text. I see no need in that. To communicate directly, I talk.
I do have a problem with it. I don’t have it on my WiFi. I need to enter a password to get on my WiFi. My password has a % in it. I can’t find it on the keyboard. I can pull up the numbers, but not a %. The % is on the calculator, but I can’t get from the calculator back to my entry.
LikeLike
Chas, when you click on the number button to go to numbers and it does look just about it for a #+= button. click that button and you will find your %
LikeLike
Church bullies are painful though they do believe they are doing the Lord’s work. At our last church we were good friend’s with the church bully, and we just ignored his garbage. Until we found out he was running the same stuff on our children who were unable to discern and let it go if it was not Truth. He cleared a lot of folk out of the church with his harsh and condescending words. It had been dealt with before and was dealt with in a stronger way when we had our misadventures with him. We should have spoken up sooner.
LikeLike
Did you notice that Burt Lancaster is gracing our pages again? When did that happen?
LikeLike
I’ll try that Kim.
Burt has always been here, are you just noticing?
LikeLike
I should have called him Inspector Javert, rather than a bully. I don’t think he realized the effect he had on a woman who was in pain, sensitive and just trying to do her volunteer work for the church. The fact he was wrong in everything he said and did only added to the pain.
I will say, our fire safety program is better for his concern, we have trained AED workers and he conscienciously mows the lawn every week. He doesn’t bother me, but his rigidity has been a challenge for many.
LikeLike
Has anyone else considered that the “church bully” just may be one of those “wolves in sheep’s clothing”? Not everyone who attends church regularly is a true believer in the Lord. Even some deacons and elders are lost sinners who don’t realize it because they were baptized at a young age and never really had a salvation experience.
So, pray for the bully and let God handle him/her unless you have a clear word to speak out.
LikeLike
Yes, but there is also the thought of protecting the sheep. But in a very careful manner.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peter, I’m not sure that “baptized at a young age” has much to do with anything. I was baptized at a young age (five), but I was a believer. And many Christians baptize their children younger still (in infancy), but teach them that baptism doesn’t save.
Meanwhile, many churches that don’t believe in infant baptism teach all sorts of things about how you’re saved if you pray some specific words and “you really mean it,” leading some people to pray the prayer many times in hopes that they “mean it” enough this time. They base salvation on human experience and human “doing” (mustering up enough faith) and not on Jesus’ work on the cross. What age a child is baptized has nothing to do with this. You can be baptized without being saved or saved without being baptized, and you can falsely believe that your own deeds have any power at all in the matter.
The wolves in Paul’s day would have been circumcised as children (the Jews among them, anyway) but not baptized as children, but they were still wolves.
LikeLike