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Our Daily Thread 8-22-15

Good Morning!

It’s Saturday!!!

And I’ve returned from my very first protest. 🙂

It was quiet, and peaceful. So much so that there wasn’t even an officer present. There were 110 by my count when I arrived and took my place in the line. Another 50 or so arrived after that. Below are some more pics. 

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Anyone have a QoD?

106 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-22-15”

  4. Mornin’ all. 🙂

    Today I’m working on my bucket list. I’m crossing “protest like a Hippie” off my list. I’m almost 50 and have never been to a protest before. That will change in a couple of hours when our local Defund Planned Parenthood protest starts at our area’s new PP facility. It’s part of a nationwide event happening today.

    I will not be fully immersing myself in the hippie experience though. I plan to bathe first. 😆

    Here’s more info, in case anyone else is interested.

    http://liveactionnews.org/reminder-national-day-protest-saturday-august-22/

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/08/pro-lifers-nationwide-will-protest-planned-parenthood-next-week/

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  5. It turns out that one of the agents who works in the commercial department with me built the house we have “purchased” (In real estate it ain’t yours until you walk away from the closing table) He used to be a high end custom builder and built all the houses on that street. He looked at the MLS photos and told me the details of the house and the extras that had been put into it. The cabinets were custom built by a furniture maker. The home is energy star certified and a lot of other things that no one would notice that make it a better built house. I had the home inspection done yesterday (I almost let the 10 days slip away with the week I had and yesterday was day 8). The inspector called me and told me the short version of the inspection was to buy it quickly. I told him we were going VA and asked if there was anything a VA inspector would flag. The biggest issue is there is a spot on the roof where the flashing needs to be nailed down. When I got the inspection report it was one of the cleanest ones I have ever seen. He made note that several things were of higher quality than the norm. There is a separation of the brick and mortar over the garage door. He recommended it be sealed, but said it was in no way related to settling or any other structural defect.
    It makes me feel good to know there have been so many positives to this process. It makes me feel as though we are headed down the right path.

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  9. I guess I should mention that Mrs L’s birthday was Aug 4 (we were in Florida at the time) and D2 was Aug 17. We just haven’t had time to get together until today.

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  12. Debating over AJ’s decision here at my house. Have never attended a protest either, but have been protested and it was scary.

    I signed papers years ago with the PCC that I would not engage in political activities about abortion while I was involved at the PCC. I’m on the periphery now, so I don’t think it would matter . . . . But is that an excuse?

    Have been debating since yesterday. Wrote an email to organizer asking for details, no response, husband says no . . .

    Anyone else want to vote? I have 2 hours.

    Oh, and I don’t want to go–cowardice, mostly. 😦

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  14. Jo, I need to see if we have anything by that author in the church library.

    Yesterday as I drove my friend toward downtown for her doctor’s appointment we drove by the sign and area leading over to the Carter Center. My friend talked of hearing Jimmy Carter’s eloquent talk about his cancer. Then, in liberal mindset, she said history will show him to be one of our best presidents. I had no words to form upon hearing her say that.

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  15. Deleted, I think you would know if you were supposed to go. It’s not as if you haven’t done your part by working with the PCC’s. Husband says no and you don’t want to go. I don’t see what the debate is.

    Now. While I am on a roll telling people what to do, anyone else need to make a decision? Yesterday at work the receptionist agreed to order the Baby Shower Invitations I liked. (are having 3 babies before October-1 is already here). She said it was easier to just do what I wanted. I asked if I could give her the number of some other people in my life so she could tell them to do what I want them to do—“it’s just easier”. Oh, and I did request that a rocking chair be purchased for the office. At least ONE of these agents is going to have to bring me a baby to rock.

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  16. I don’t catch much news, but my friend told me about a bolt of lightning that hit a Delta plane on the runway that was full of passengers. She said no one got hurt but the plane’s tire caught on fire. I think that might be the same cloud that sent lightning to hit the tree by our office since we are only ten or fifteen minutes from the airport.

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  18. Hmmm. Just out of curiosity I googled Planned Parenthood. There are 4 near me. Mobile, Pensacola, Birmingham, and Marietta Georgia. They have a list of 7 services they provide. #1 is Abortion. #7 is Women’s Health. Seems like if only 3% of their services were abortions it would be listed as #7 instead of #1. I mean, truly if I needed some women’s health I wouldn’t want to see everything else before I found health care.

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  19. Being hit by lightning on the ground is worse for a plane than being hit in the air.
    In the air, the plane isn’t grounded and sheds the voltage.
    We have been hit several times with no damage.

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  21. Michelle,

    It’s only blocks from my house, sadly. It’s pretty new. I just feel like I should. They’re preying on my neighbors and kids I know. I don’t like that, so I feel like I should peacefully make that known. That’s why I’m doing it. It’s way outta my comfort zone too, I hate crowds, but I’m gonna do it anyway because I think it’s the right thing. If we don’t speak up, who will?

    AJ

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  23. If I went to a rally I would go to the one where Alveda King is speaking. But I am so tired from a pretty full week and behind on household chores. There are so many great events here that it is hard to choose. There is also a wonderful writer’s conference in town this weekend and I could have attended with people from my new group, but I had already signed up for another conference in Sept.

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  26. I put up some pics from the protest. 🙂

    Note the 3rd one down in the smaller pics. That big building in the background is the local public high school. 😦

    They set up shop 2 doors away, it’s easier to prey on the kids that way. 😦

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  27. Great protest photos, AJ!

    That is totally disgusting concerning their choice of locations. Almost unbelievable except for what has already been brought out about their dubious ways of generating income.

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  28. There’s a protest at our local PP today, too (it’s been there for many years), which a number of people from my church are planning to attend (it starts in about 20 minutes, at 10 a.m., I think, it’s still morning out here 🙂 ).

    A reporter from our paper is covering the protest (the one who was trying to read through the Bible some time ago — I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about how that all went or was or is going — she’s the daughter of a mainline Presby pastor so she grew up in what was a very-very liberal church, lots of political and social justice action for liberal causes with little to no real religious instruction from what I can tell).

    Her story should post by later this afternoon.

    What happened at the protest you went to AJ? How was it organized/formatted, just people standing quietly with signs or speeches or (blocking traffic and getting arrested!?) or ???

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  29. Actually, Jo, he passed away a few years ago. Stephen Bly. We do have some of his books and enjoy them. His wife and sons completed his unfinished novel after he died.

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  31. AJ, I don’t think it actually counts as a protest unless you burn a police car, loot a convenience store or take the microphone away from Bernie Sanders.

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  33. Deleted did not go, but she’s thankful AJ went and is glad his protest was as well organized as it is. I could have held one of those signs, though I would have prefered to stand with a candle as a silent vigil, nothing more.

    I could explain why I didn’t go, but let’s just say, but the time I made my decision, I felt fine with it and that same husband agreed with me.

    I did, however, pray for those in my local area and maybe that’s what my real role needed to be.

    I’m glad your reporter went, Donna, most paper did not send anyone. 😦

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  34. That is some article, Kim.

    I actually wondered something similar about Anna, a very young woman with limited life experience and four children under five. Let’s pray truth will be revealed and the Holy Spirit will be her guide–not her circumstances and the teachings in which she has been indoctrinated. Let’s pray that it will be Jesus who leads her and guides her in the coming days, weeks, months and the rest of her life.

    We can do no less.

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  35. Meanwhile back here in drought land, I’m working on the background I need to teach my Heaven Bible study starting in mid-September. I’ve got Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven, and frankly am blown away by page 70.

    I like Alcorn and used his equally important book Money, Possessions and Eternity to teach Bible studies on money.

    This book is even more amazing–using Scripture (with a strong call to make sure we test what he says and let him know if we disagree and why based on Biblical exegesis) to show things about heaven I never considered before. I’m almost breathless and so very thankful.

    Highly recommended. He’s a good guy in many ways.

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  36. Saw a post on our local PP protest, about 20-30 folks from our church alone attended, including our pastor, and “hundreds” all together. Our elder who posted said the tone was “pleasant and encouraging” and that another event was being planned for the coming months.

    I like the idea of the silent, candle vigil, though, I think that would be a powerful statement.

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  37. But in other news … There’s a topless protest march set for today at Venice Beach. (The cause, apparently, being women should be able to go topless to the beach.)

    That will get more news coverage, of course.

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  39. I see our reporter was live tweeting from the protest this morning, she posted a couple short video clips.

    Maybe I’m protest-weary (having come from the generation that perfected the practice), but I kind of zone out when I start hearing the megaphone speeches and see the handwritten signs bobbing. I’m not against staging protests, in many ways they serve to encourage supporters and develop a more cohesive & effective base.

    But from a personal standpoint, I still think michelle’s idea of a night-time candlelight vigil — no speeches, but maybe a spoken prayer to start — would be more moving; maybe a series of them (short, 30-60 minutes) for several nights running or once a week or once a month …

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  41. One odd thing I will note. Out of all the people I saw at the protest, I didn’t know a one of ’em. Not one neighbor, church member, or Christian I know was in attendance in the hour I was there.

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  42. AJ, I can relate to that isolated feeling. When I went for the day time prayer vigil a couple of years ago at the capitol for Pastor Saeed Abidini, I knew no one. And at the religious feedom rallies I have only known the person who invited me and at one of the rallies one of our tax clients was a speaker. I know it is because many people just don’t go downtown, but what a better statement it would make for more people to get involved. I figured many would show up today since it is Saturday. I do try to show up when others can’t or can give an easy excuse.

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  43. Without telling husband about our discussion on alcoholism and sin, I asked him if he remebered hearing drinking labeled as sin in church. His family was active in the big West End Baptist as he grew up near downtown Atlanta. He said he knew it was different in the smaller Baptist churches in other areas. He said with his being a large urban church that they did not hear much about that. So though he was Baptist and I was Presby, back then our churches would have been more similar or not simply because of locale. But with my brother having been “under the influence of ATI, he would probably have been under one of those vows and he might label someone who drinks as a sinner. I have tried to correct him on the one drink issue before even though I don’t want to be around drinking. I have not discussed my feelings about why I don’t like to be around drinking at such depths anywhere else as I have here.

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  44. My late friend Norma, who died at 82 recently, recalled signing “the pledge” not to (ever) drink when she was a young girl growing up in the Methodist Church.

    When our church switched to wine for communion, it actually caused her some consternation — and she never liked it when our pastor or one or more of the elders preaching or leading classes (this didn’t happen often) would joke about having a good time the night before arguing theology in a local pub.

    Not to revive this already well-hashed-over topic, but the temperance movement had a sweeping influence on U.S. churches (and much of the movement was driven by “church ladies,” of course) and continues, I think, to the the long-forgotten source of many anti-alcohol stances still found within U.S. Christianity.

    Some years ago during our communion discussions as a church body — when we were discussing the change from a split tray (wine and/or grape juice, both available) to offering wine only — a lot of education about the history of this was explained. When you understand that church background and the temperance movement’s strong (and essentially secular) influence regarding alcohol — and then pit that against the biblical argument for wine in communion — the decision was pretty clear.

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  45. Mumsee, I went to his blog after I posted and learned that he had died. All of his books that I have seen are good, but the Skinner family in the gold fields of Nevada was about a simple family doing what was right in a very humble way.

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  46. Donna, the topless thing won’t work.
    They tried that in the sixties. It was the women who opposed it.
    It may work for some women in their teens and early twenties. But it’s no secret that most women need a little help in some way. Especially as the years pass.

    Was it Marilyn Monroe who said, “A woman’s greatest asset is a man’s imagination.”?

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  47. I have been part of prolife vigils where we got all the churches together to stand silently holding signs for an hour.
    I also spent a year just quietly praying outside planned parenthoods office for an hour a week. No signs, just on the street praying.

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  48. chas, I think the topless idea would be strictly voluntary and not *mandatory* for everyone on the beach. 😉 It would be a popular beach for the guys, of course, but I’d think it would just get old after a while.

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  49. And you could also get people going topless who, um, really just wouldn’t carry off the look so well. I’ve heard nudist camps are like that, most people naked are simply not all that attractive.

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  52. An older lady I knew once scandalously told a joke about a young couple that had been married about a year. The young husband finally got courage enough to ask his wife if insanity ran in her family. She was taken about and asked why. He said, “Well why do you always wear a hat to bed?” “Oh that” she said, “My mother told me to never let you see me completely naked.”

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  53. When our son was around one I found a friend around the corner who had a mom’s group. One day we went to the Atlanta Zoo with our nursing babies. I never nursed out in punlic but she strongly believed in it. So I did it one time feeling terribly self conscious. We never went another place with them. You may get the impression that I live in an area where it is difficult to meet what I think of as regular conservative people. It has been a rather lonely existence all these years surrounded by so many highly liberal minded people.

    Speaking of the Methodists, I don’t remember anyone that I associated with there as people who drank during social occasions I attended. I don’t think it would have been an issue, but I guess it was just not part of the general culture with that church group.

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  54. Just so you know….because if you drink alone you may have a problem….Mr P and I just had rib eye steak with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and salad….and yes I did have a glass of wine. Something about the red meat and just a touch of fat makes the wine taste better. Or does the wine make the meat taste better? Either way it was what I requested for dinner and it sure was good.
    I had a perfect day. I didn’t change out of my pajamas until around 2pm. I washed clothes, cleaned my house, and sat outside and read a book. It just doesn’t get much better than that. I leave the house every morning around 7:30 stay inside an office with bad lighting and shutters over the windows almost all day only to arrive back home around 5:30 or 6. To sit outside in the sunshine just makes me happy. As I have told you before I can sit in the sun or I can take prozac. I will take my chances with the sun. Yes it was the perfect day. There are two very happy puppy dogs at my house tonight because they got to a little gristle as an after dinner snack.

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  55. Janice, despite my attitude about alcohol I think I would be uncomfortable with it being acceptable in a “church” situation. My Bible study group always takes the month of August off. two weeks ago we all gathered for dinner at someone’s home. There was wine. It was dinner, but I can’t recall anyone having more than a glass. For our regular Monday night at 7pm Bible Study we have water, herbal tea, or decafinated coffee.

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  56. Kim, I understand liking the flavor of wine, etc. I enjoyed the flavors of different drinks similar to how one enjoys desserts. I just tended to never be around people who had only one drink. It just seemed to be the thing to do at a certain age, in college and then in my twenties.

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  57. Janice, when I was an older teen or early twenties (somewhere around 18), a friend of mine was in her second marriage (he first husband had gone to jail for child molesting), and it was a marriage that didn’t last very long. (She was 15 years older than me.) Well, she told me that her husband often went to a party Friday night, and he liked it if she went with him, but she didn’t care either way and so we could stay home if I liked. I think she was trying to say she didn’t want to go and she’d happily use me as an excuse, but she didn’t tell me what her reservations were, and I just said it was OK with me if we went.

    We went, and were the only ones not drinking or smoking. For a sheltered fundamentlist gal, it was really a whole different world. When I heard “party” I thought stuff to eat, chatting, maybe a game or two. I just didn’t think of a party where I didn’t know anyone but my friend (and she herself hardly knew anyone) and everyone was drinking and smoking. It was extremely odd for me, and we didn’t stay long. I wouldn’t like that party today, either, though I’m sure I could manage to people watch and at least survive it, and I’d have something to drink.

    That is the only time in my life I have ever been to an event where people had more than one or two drinks. I’ve never seen anyone I know drunk. (I know people who have been drunk in their life, but never in my presence.)

    And I definitely have some wines I like better than others. I tend to like sweeter ones, and I think as a rule they have less alcohol. The sweeter ones are more “interesting” than grape juice in terms of having layers of flavor, but I’m nowhere close to an expert. Whether I’ve ever drunk a wine that cost more than $10 a bottle, I don’t know. (I’ve been served wine with a meal at other people’s homes, but that was before we were buying our own and before I knew the slightest thing about the subject. It was always red wine, and always something I finished to be polite, not because I liked it.)

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  58. Our story finally posted — funny because the phone captured one of our elders + another church member (there were a couple hundred there). Funny because this elder and/or his small children have been photographed by chance (now) 3 times for the paper, he was joking that he’d become a “regular.”

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  62. 🙂 She came in and said, “this is what I’m wearing to church, my gold ear rings and this.”
    I said “OK”. This has been going on for over 58 years, She comes in to be checked out and it’s always been OK. I can’t remember saying, “you aren’t wearing that, are you?”
    She wants to be sure.
    It’s getting to the point where that may be important someday soon.
    Me? I never ask. I’m wearing what I wore last Sunday.

    😆

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  63. Good morning! Good end of the day, Jo!

    Sometimes I do have to ask husband to find something else to wear, but never on a Sunday. He has never told me to change although I may give him reason at times to do so.

    Surprise, surprise! It’s thundering again. Would send the sounds and the results to CA if I could.

    Who is wearing a head covering today?

    My friend said she would go see War Room with me, and it would make her husband jealous. 🙂 Maybe it will be impetus for getting her to church.

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  65. Thunder is moving closer! That means I might not be,able to get a shower. I always get a shower before church! So it may be an outdoor shower today with an umbrella for my head covering. And I may need to wear a real head covering to the service.

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  68. Husband just said it is darker now than it was at 6:30 a.m. i do not expect many to be at church with this pounding rain. I am committed so I will go in a few minutes.

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  70. Making sure someone gets 100 today while I miss my morning shower. I decided a jacket over a top works well for today. 🙂 CA never has these clothing decisions. 😦

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  71. Chas, my husband has a good sense of color, being an artist. I ask him whether a top and skirt go together if I’m not sure and I haven’t worn them together before. He did tell me “no” at least once. He never asks me. All his Sunday combinations were established long before I came into the family.

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  73. Kim, I’m sure I wear all sorts of fashion don’ts. But nobody in this household or our church would know or care, and I don’t care what fellow shoppers at Wal-Mart think, so I should be OK. 🙂

    Seriously, I try to avoid “trendy” and periodically I think to look around and see if a certain style (say capris) is still in, because I really just don’t think in those terms. I think I was the last person in my church in Nashville (not literally, but close to it) who was still wearing nylons, and it was quite a while before I even noticed that. I buy classy where possible and wear my clothes for decades. If a style is semi-classy and seems like it may last a while and I like it, then I’ll buy some–for example peasant skirts. But I try to avoid anything that will be “out of style” in two or three years, and definitely avoid anything likely to be out of style next year. (I avoided buying capris for about ten years even though I like the style, because I kept thinking it was a fleeting style. I finally saw it was here to stay for a while, and bought some.)

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  74. Oh Cheryl, I was being rather tongue in cheek. I have a pair of pants that I have had since December of 2013. Every time she sees me in them she says something about how horrid they are. It tickles me that almost every time I wear them someone complements them and asks where I got them.

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  76. No rain here, so it will be sandals for me. But our marine layer is back so the mornings are cool.

    We’re meeting for the next 3 Sundays at the mainline Presby church near the beach, but still at 3 p.m. which I haven’t — and never will — get used to. 🙄

    But meanwhile, it sounds like the remodel of our own leased facility is on track, so we should be back to our usual morning worship sometime in September, hoping for early September …

    Among the changes will be new & more comfortable chairs (yay!), new carpet and more space as they’re taking out a bunch of storage cabinets that lined the east wall. Our attendance floats at near the building’s capacity (per fire codes, and we have a city firefighter on our board of elders), so that will help to accommodate everyone more easily and safely.

    Other than that, they never produced any renderings (probably realizing we’d all have our own opinions and the plans would quickly get mired in disagreement!) so it will be something of a fun surprise when we all return “home” for our first Sunday. 🙂

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  80. Elvera’s comment, when I’m not dressed to suit her: “If you’re wearing that, I’m not going with you.” It’s usually the result of mixing the wrong colors. I never was good at that.
    My philosophy was, “If you put it together, it goes together”. That doesn’t always work.

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  81. In SS this morning, we were studying Revelation 12. Came to v. 3&4 where the dragon swept a third of the stars out of heaven. How to interpret that?
    One of the guys said “Donald Trump”.
    I think he was kidding, but I don’t know that.
    We let it pass.

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  85. From Drudge:
    The ‘First Daughter’ looked spectacularly unimpressed while on a bicycle ride with her family during their vacation on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.

    Malia Obama was photographed peddling in between her mother and father along a path in Vineyard Haven.

    While biking, the 17 year old appeared to be in a sour mood.

    Her younger sibling, Sasha, led the pack of four, who were surrounded by a number of Secret Service officers.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207198/Cheer-Malia-vacation-Daughter-looks-unimpressed-bicycle-ride-family-s-stay-Martha-s-Vineyard.html#ixzz3jfMGtiKh
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    My comment: Leave the girls alone!
    Let them be teen age girls.

    But how can you be a teen age girl when you are surrounded by secret service. I’ll bet they have a tough time getting dates.
    I wouldn’t wish that on any kid.

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  86. Not as many as usual in church today. By the end of the service the sun was shining brightly.

    We have our quarterly church conference later today. That use to be done on Wed. evenings.

    Miss Bosley is having lap time. I guess she finally tired of hanging out in her paper bag. Last night we were throwing paper balls for her to run out and catch. I think she jumps up close to four feet to snag or bat them. I never get enough of seeing her do that. Sometime I will try again to video it. I was just not fast enough to get it all on video when I tried before with this phone. I have the camera on her on the floor and when she leaps so high I lose tracking her. Her toys are very inexpensive 🙂 ♡

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  87. I think Mahlia has learned to imitate her mom’s moody looks. And maybe she was forced into bike riding for the photo op. That has to be a fish bowl pressure cooker for teenagers.

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  90. Kim, you asked for comments about your link to the ‘No Longer Quivering’ blog post about Anna Duggar. The writer, who was raised in the Quiverfull movement (an anti-birth control movement based on the verses in Psalm 127 “As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children in the hands of the Lord. Blessed is the man who hath his quiver full of them.”) is more bitter and harsh in tone than I like; but she also speaks the truth. I cannot count the number of times I have read from Christian teachers that if women only satisfy their husbands, said husbands will have no desire to stray – everyone, from the cultic Bill Gothard and bombastic Mark Driscoll, to the very mainstream Tim Challies and highly respected John Piper.

    It is often said that marriage is a two-way street, but one thing I have observed consistently in the modern church is that the wife’s submission is emphasized more often and more intensely than the husband’s self-sacrificing love. I often remember Genesis 5:16, and realize that not even Church leaders are immune from the natural tendency to put women down. A concerned mother recently told me that her son, married for just a few years, thought that it was Biblical for the wife to lie if her husband told her to lie. It seems this man believes that the man is high priest of the home, and therefore, if the wife sins at his behest, it is not her responsibility. I longed to demand of him if that still held true if a husband told his wife to murder someone. When the eldest son of a family in the church left his wife and children for another woman, I immediately heard excuses from his parents that a) the woman he ran away with dressed immodestly, and b) his wife (who had been pregnant every year of their marriage) wasn’t properly submissive.

    I always want to point out that the model for how a husband should behave is Christ (Ephesians 5:25), and His Church has strayed many times without Him ever wavering in faithfulness. If a woman is denying her husband, that is sinful on her part (I Corinthians 7:4); however, that does not afford the husband an excuse to then go and sin. After all, what if a wife becomes permanently disabled? The idea that a wife can keep her husband from adultery is also insulting to the man. It makes it sound as if men are mindless rutting beasts incapable of self-control, whom if they cannot breed with their wife will find some other female to satisfy them. That, as we know, is simply not the case. Men can live in purity and celibacy, as Paul and Jeremiah (16:2) demonstrated. So, a husband can also live in temporary celibacy if necessary (I Corinthians 7:5). The excuse that “My wife just wasn’t giving me enough sex” sounds suspiciously like Adam’s whine, “The woman which you gave me, she tempted me and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:12) Every human bears responsibility for their own actions before the Lord, and no excuses will stand before His judgement.

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  91. Phos, I will admit that I am not a submissive woman. I was raised by a mother who told me to never get myself in a position where I was dependent on a man. I was raised as the only child of a man who thought I could do anything I set my mind to do. He gave me the best education he could afford and he made sure that his granddaughter would have the same opportunity.
    My husband sometimes jokes with me about being a Submissive Southern Christian Woman and I ask him what fairy tales he has been readying. He pays all the bills and controls most of the money but when I want to know something I will log into all the bank accounts to check balances and where money has gone and I will call all the credit cards and find out the balances and what has been charged. I won’t ever NOT know what is going on. Just because I don’t want to handle out finances will never mean that I am not capable.
    It has been my experience and those of many women I have spoken with that if a man is going to stray it has more to do with him than it does with you. He is the one who is flawed.
    My husband is the kind I can be submissive to, but he is the kind that yesterday I asked him to put some money in my bank account. His response was why didn’t I do it. My argument was that he paid all the bills and he knew what was coming out before the next pay day. He told me everything was paid and to put what I needed into my account. So I did. I needed gas for the week and I wanted my toenails painted.
    What we have works for us. It may not be what works for others but it works for us. My advice to you is that you are an educated young woman. Every woman needs a little money no one knows she has even if it is nothing but $25 for splurging on her toe nails. Put a dollar or two aside every payday.
    I received a small inheritance from an uncle back in December. I put it in an account and let it sit there. Recently we decided to make and offer on a house. $1.0000 Earnest Money Deposit. I had it covered. $250 Home Inspection….I had it covered. I was just determined it was going to something meaningful not be frittered away.

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  92. On protests: I attended one pro-life demonstration and one pro-marriage rally in my young teens, both peaceful. I’m still uncertain of their efficacy. During my nursing training, I once had the opportunity to see what the workers in the hospital thought of some people demonstrating against abortion outside (Planned Parenthood does not have clinics up here and abortions are usually performed in hospitals). Now, most of these workers had absolutely no involvement in the abortions (only one doctor did abortions there one morning a week and only a few operating room staff would have been involved), but they were nonetheless hostile and/or dismissive towards the protesters. I also once encountered a protester who made her life’s work protesting abortion, and I was not impressed. For one thing, she told exaggerations and half-truths to make her case sound stronger (I knew they were partial truths because of first-hand knowledge and research I had done). Personally, these days I would rather do something productive, like work at a PCC or help deliver babies, than protest.

    On toplessness: I remember many years ago as a child, hearing about a Supreme Court ruling that a woman had the right to go topless in public. All the conservative adults around me were horrified. However, in all the years since then, it hasn’t led to any widespread toplessness in Canada. Women, in general, don’t seem to be interested in exercising their right. The first time I saw a topless woman in public was in the West African village. There women strip to the waist to cook or do laundry, as well as breastfeed in public. The elderly women will sometimes sit outside in the hot afternoons with no top on and there isn’t anything attractive about it. Actually, as far as breastfeeding goes, our ancestors up to the 1800s, and even into the 1900s breastfed in public. The upper classes could afford a wet nurse, but the lower classes did what they had to and there were no clever manufacturers of breastfeeding covers. I suspect it was the rise of formula which made it socially inappropriate to breastfeed in public.

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  93. Kim, I think you are a submissive wife. Modern thought seems to think that submission means subservience of an inferior to a superior, but that is not what the Biblical term means. The Greek word used for submit is hypotasso, and blueletterbible.org has this to say about the meaning:
    ‘This word was a Greek military term meaning “to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader”. In non-military use, it was “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.’ http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G5293
    That same Greek word is used in Luke 2:51 to describe Jesus’ voluntary submission to His earthly parents, and also His submission as God the Son to God the Father (I Corinthians 15:28). Submission in a marriage relationship is simply the cooperation and sharing of responsibility that happens in a healthy marriage, or indeed, in any healthy relationship, for Christians in general are to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21)

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  94. I have been in several protests or demonstrations. They were all peaceful. There is a time and place for them in our type of government. They do sway public opinion or keep it from being swayed in a particular way. Not everyone can participate and I would not expect it of everyone. We are all called to light and salt, however, in some way.

    Young women are not in the same relationship with their husbands as they are with their fathers. This seems to be misunderstood in some circles.

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  95. One sign I made for a pro-life walk stated, “Abortion is forgivable and had a reference to 1John 1:9. My little children walked with me and were in a stroller.

    Interestingly, this year we had several people stop by the fair booth and thank us. It is always surprising to see who avoids the booth and those who stop and sign the petition. The young gay couple with numerous piercings and tattoos was the most interesting this year. They signed the petition. They had some choice words for the Republican booth, however.

    People are so interesting.

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  97. Roscuro, my sister has an interesting and fairly extreme view of submission. I remember when she and her husband decided she would not accept any phone calls after 9:00 and would, in fact, get off the phone at exactly 9:00 except in a dire emergency.

    When my sister-in-law was dying, I once drove home from having spent two or three days at my brother’s house. I looked at the clock in my car and saw that I just might make it home before 9:00, and I urgently needed to talk to someone who would sympathize with just a little bit of the pain of her suffering. I made it to my house at something like 8:57, and though I needed to go to the bathroom, I ran for the phone and made my call, thinking they’d at least give me ten or fifteen minutes to “unload,” maybe even more if they sensed how important it was that I debrief from what was, in effect, being a hospice nurse for someone I loved. (By that point they’d finally acknowledged she was dying, and she was a couple of months away, maybe on oxygen and in a wheelchair, I don’t remember the details.)

    Well, I got on the phone and very briefly explained how she was. At about 9:01 I heard my brother-in-law speak and my sister said, “What? Oh . . . I have to get off the phone, it’s 9:00.” And I was like, “Wait! Guys, use some common sense here.” Surely she could have told him, “She just got home from three days in Chattanooga, and she needs a few minutes of my time.” But I got two or three minutes and that was it. I really thought that my situation would qualify as at least a little bit of an emergency. They stayed up till at least 11:00, so it wasn’t like they were usually in bed by 8:30 and I was calling past their bedtime.

    The irony was, the family who wasn’t necessarily “there for me” in such situations when I was single was suddenly telling me I couldn’t marry without their blessing (two siblings had that thought). And it was like “Um, no. If I can’t call you at 9:00 at night when someone I love is dying, can’t call you at 11:00 at night when I’ve been hit by a drunk driver and it’s Saturday night and I suddenly have no car and can’t go to church tomorrow, if you never send me $100 because you know I only made $300 this month and that isn’t quite enough when my mortgage alone is more than that . . . then don’t think you can speak up when a man comes along who can offer me loving support.”

    This sister was very, very lost when her husband died suddenly. She wasn’t used to even being in on most decision making. But when she tried to tell my husband that part of a wife’s duty was to see what her husband believed in every theological detail and then say “Yes, me too,” he told her a solid no. He told her that part of what he loved about me is that he and I disagree on some secondary issues, and I can explain why respectfully (and privately if public disagreement would be improper), that no way would he want someone who had no opinions or thoughts of her own. Part of what I bring to this marriage is my own life experience, including my reading, and my skills. That is not distinct from seeing my primary life role as being his support, not distinct from being a submissive wife.

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  98. Michelle, glad to hear you are reading Heaven by Alcorn. He is one of my favorite authors, both fiction and nonfiction. Husband and I are currently going through Heaven together. Makes for interesting discussion.

    Jo, I will look for that story by Bly.

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  99. Cheryl if you ever need to talk to someone whose husband doesn’t make her get off the phone at any hour you are welcome to call me.
    I don’t think I could live under the conditions your sister did.

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  100. Thanks, Kim.

    Kim, it wasn’t my brother-in-law who was choosing those restrictions, I don’t think. I think both of them thought 9:00 was a good ending time for phone calls, and he chose to enforce it to help her be able to get off the phone at a time she did want to get off the phone . . . but she really was sometimes on auto-pilot. I once saw her ask him whether he thought she should thaw the chicken in the fridge or in cold water, or some such thing that she knew a lot about and he knew nothing . . . it just seemed like she was going out of her way to demonstrate, “See, I’m such a submissive wife I even run trivial cooking questions by my husband!” (She was an excellent chef, and very happy that he had no interest in cooking. So it really was like him asking her a car-repair question or a question about the right fishing line, just that silly.)

    Really, truly, if that night she had said, “Honey, Cheryl just got back from spending three days with [bro and sis-in-law] and she needs to talk a few minutes,” he was a very thoughtful man and he would have said, “No problem. Talk as long as you need to.” She just had a built-in knee-jerk reaction that didn’t even allow her to check with me to see if I was OK before telling me she had to get off, goodbye. My best friend went to bed about 9:00 and so I didn’t feel right about calling her, and there really just wasn’t anyone else I could call. But it was “I’m a submissive wife, and I’m not paid to think.” I’m 90% sure it was more her than him, since he was an extremely easy-going man. I mean, he could be a good disciplinarian with their kids, but he was a long way from a type-A person.

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  102. Cheryl must be on the phone.

    We had a wonderful worship service this afternoon — we sounded amazing with the acoustics of a genuine high-arched-ceiling church. Beautiful. And I miss pews. We packed the place. Sigh. I’m coveting again.

    One of the songs we sang was “El Shaddai” which we hadn’t sung in a while — also “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Revelation Song,” “Unto the King Eternal,” and “Praise to the Lord the Almighty.”

    Sermon (on Rom. 10:17) focused on the importance of the Word of God which made me think about the FB discussion I was part of last week where it seemed a very low view of Scripture was held by a couple people.

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  103. Peter, it’s funny, because I remembered we’d been getting close to 100 earlier and thought I’d check to see if by chance we were at 98 or 99. I saw we were at 102 and thought “Oh well, I missed it” and then I scrolled down and saw there were two comments after my own, and therefore my own must be #100. 🙂

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