44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-20-15”

  1. Morning all, and thanks Aj. Friday was long, but nice. One boy looked so tired that I sent him to the office to be sent home. Later his mom told me he had a 103 degree fever. Good decision. With the rest, we ended the day playing ‘Oats, peas, beans and barley grow.”

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  5. Good Morning Everyone. Everything seems to be stable around here. That is a good thing.I have some things to get done today so that I can have a clear weekend. I am dog sitting next week for a friend while they take their children to Disney World. His name is Pepper and he is a white Malti-Poo. I understand he is quite spoiled so he should fit in around here just fine. I have a weakness for little dogs named Pepper. When my friend told he has traumatized he was when they boarded him before I had to volunteer to keep him. My dad had a little black Poodle named Pepper. It was quite a sight to behold-a big, gruff, six and half foot man and a 10 pound Poodle about their day. The last time my dad went out of town and left Pepper with me he sat at my dining room window and cried the whole time his human was gone.
    White Pepper is coming over tomorrow afternoon.

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  6. Kim’s QOD: I know we have discussed it at some length in the past, but I can’t remember where we all stood on it.
    What were your views on Yoga, Meditation, and Christians? My friend L has gotten quite involved and wants me to go to something with her tonight. I told her I would go.

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  7. We stayed in the new Decision Making Unit of the ER. Nice room and people. I think Art will be released soon, but I am concerned still about the bleeding. At least the pain is better. The doc’s assessment unless something else shows up is that the position he was held in during surgery caused a pinched nerve in his thigh. It was the worst pain he has ever known. He is still having pain from the kidney stent (spasms from foreign object in the body). The doc had worked in ob/gynecology and has seen ladies who have that pinched nerve from childbirth. I had never heard of that. It’s amazing how many different ailments our bodies are subject to.

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  8. Kim, I have done yoga before, in my twenties, before becoming a Christian. I was good at it, so much so that once when the teacher didn’t show, the small group asked me to lead them.

    I think the exercises are good, but I have not wanted to be involved with yoga as a Christian mostly because of some of the meditative and suggestions as to how to be in a peaceful and restful state. They are not seeming to anti-Christian, but they do not honor Christ as the Giver of true all-encompassing peace. Christians who are firm in their beliefs will probably not lose their faith from participating, but people who are seekers will not be encouraged to look to Christ by the time they dedicate to yoga. I do not feel judgemental if someone does yoga. I did feel concerned when the Christian preschool offered yoga. But that’s how it is in a liberal area. If you attend yoga with someone who is not Christian then it might be an opportunity to reach someone with the message of Jesus.

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  9. 2nd grade granddaughter made 2 baskets last night. It is the 1st time she actually got the ball through the hoop. Much joy and happiness.

    Janice, renal colic is no fun. Continuing in prayer for you and Art.

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  10. Yoga split my husband’s family in two and snatched 1/2 the children into the Sikh movement in 1968. They are still there and one is demon possessed. I understand the physical excellence of stretching and yoga, but genuine yoga has a spiritual and meditation root. I wouldn’t attend a meeting, if for no other reason than to honor the agony of what my in-laws went through.

    But I’m not biased . . . .

    I’ve just lived with the heartache for a very long time, though we get along with the more rational sister and her non-religious children.

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  11. So sorry for the troubled aftermath of Art’s surgery. It was good to get into the ER for that pain relief and to find out what the heck was going on. Hope everything gets under control & that you’re both back home and resting soon with Miss Bosley.

    We had a long discussion here about yoga a few years ago as I recall.

    Doing a story today on our local crafts mart on the waterfront and a “pop-up” artisan (who also happens to go to my church) who has started a biz using recycled wood from the Hollywood Bowl to create furniture & home accessories. It’s a very cool idea (and she also provided the large, plain cross for the front of our remodeled sanctuary — I’ll have to ask her, but it looks like Hollywood Bowl wood 🙂 ).

    Carol’s messenger bag that she wanted for Christmas arrived yesterday so I’ll take that up to her tomorrow, need to figure out wrapping. But I’m glad we agreed to just pick it out in advance and have it shipped rather than trying to make out way to the store tomorrow.

    This way, if I can get up there in the mid-to later morning range, we can have a bite, do whatever errands she needs to do and I can get back on the road for home hopefully by early afternoon sometime.

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  12. Great solution, Donna.

    Sorry to sound like a broken record. We are at the point of discharge and his pains have returned full blast. So even as discharge has been processed, he is to be given another pain pill (other was IV) and wait to see how he does. This is agony to me to hear him in pain.

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  16. First of all. I am so sorry Janice.

    Second!!!! Donna– Protective Kim is rearing her ugly head. There is a saying that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. It has been attributed to everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Maya Angelou, but it also follows that no one can take advantage of you without your consent.
    I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with Carol, nor how long you have been friends, but she is taking advantage of you by guilting you into doing things that are not convenient for you.
    I know as Christians we are supposed to do things for others but I do not believe we have to give up everything to do for others. I understand that she is “in the system” and she has no one else, but sometimes we have to be a little selfish and take care of ourselves–that doesn’t make you a bad person. From my view you are a very good person.

    I want you to know that saying “No” is very powerful and you don’t owe anyone an explanation for why you said no. As someone who has worked full time for years now, I know that when I am away from home 40+ hours a week when I have a day off it is a day I don’t have to get dressed and go anywhere and there have been whole weekends when I haven’t left the house.

    I hope you have taken this in the spirit I mean it. I don’t know Carol but I do know you and want you to take care of you.

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  17. Physically yoga would be good, but spiritually not. For a Christian, prayer and meditation on Scripture are the way to inner peace. Not repeating a mantra which is based on some Hindu deity.

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  18. Carol can be demanding, I agree. But I have said ‘no’ for a few weeks running now (to requests for a visit). So it was time. I’m not up there any more than 1-2 times a month (usually just one Saturday a month, although she asks every weekend, every vacation day I get 🙂 ).

    I know she’s lonesome and her boyfriend can’t visit often because he relies on his uncle to drive him there (and that’s not happening very often). She wants to move back to her former facility (where she shared a room with him, despite my opposition). Maybe that would be best, I don’t know. They are very close friends and I know she misses him.

    I’ve urged her to at least get her own room if she move go back — she can still hang out with him all she wants, just not share a room. But I suspect if she goes back there it’ll be to share the room with him again. He’s got cable TV, after all. 😉 And she liked having the ready-made company, I know.

    Guess I need to just let that go. She’s going to do what she’s going to do …

    If she does move back, it would actually relieve some of the ongoing pressure on me to visit all the time.

    She’s getting acclimated to Hollywood, seems to be pretty regular at the Hollywood Pres church that’s within walking distance for her (and has gone to their Bible study during the week). But she misses her old place and the boyfriend, I know.

    But she also talks about getting into a facility near me, which would be OK too — less driving for me to visit & help her out, but I definitely would be seeing more of her in that case. Then saying “no” would be a lot tougher.

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  20. thanks Kim, I’m trying. 🙂 Salads every day this week, but still struggling with adding a morning dog walk to the nightly one I do. I need more exercise and walking is the most natural for me.

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  21. I am getting in my brisk walks going to retrieve the car from hospital parking lots. And my diet is corn chex, raisins, and applesauce fortified with a bit of talapia off of husband’s hospital tray today. Exercise and diet plan for healthy living.

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  24. Kim, on the yoga, I never experienced a group that did heavy duty meditation of a religious persuasion, but what was done might be considered a version of New Age feel good without being dependent on God as the source. It was different in that respect from a general exercise class. For the vulnerable it could have been a gateway to other things leading away from Jesus. I know of a few ladies at church who do yoga classes and others who warn to never ever do that. It’s really up to you and God and His purposes for you.

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  25. Glad you get to go home, RKessler!

    Janice, I’m very sorry about all the pain Art has been dealing with, and your pain watching him endure that. Praying for you both, and thankful that you’re both home now!

    Kim, QoD, I’m in agreement with the sentiments expressed about yoga and it’s being problematic for a Christian.

    I haven’t ever done yoga, tai chi, or meditative things like that, but one bit of advice I took that I later stopped doing after the one time I did it was to bring a “focal point” to the hospital when I delivered my first baby.

    We were encouraged in our Lamaze class to bring a physical object that I could focus on to take my mind off the pain of labor.

    Not only did it not help, but at a later date, I came to see the activity as sort of “meditative,” and not on God, so I did not practice that in any of my subsequent births.

    Not that that’s necessarily the same thing as the focus in yoga and such, but I, personally, didn’t feel comfortable with further pursuing that, though others may not feel the “focal point” thing is not a problem for them. I suppose it depends on one’s mindset at the time.

    I did bring along recorded music to all of my births, and listening to that as I labored didn’t feel meditative and like I was shutting out God in my thoughts.

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  26. Speaking of music, and movie music in particular, as we have been lately, Minnesota Public Radio has a Saturday morning feature called “Saturday Cinema.” They explore themes from movies, as you would guess. I don’t listen to it often, as I tend not to be on the computer much on Saturday mornings, but if you’re interested in hearing more movie music and discussions on them on a regular basis, the feature airs at 10:00 a.m. Central Time at this site:

    http://www.classicalmpr.org/

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  28. I’ve got a pretty good track record going today for not succeeding, so I thought I’d move on to less difficult things.

    I’m working on my newsletter and newsletter list and wondered if any of you are interested in signing up: http://bit.ly/1yMSAAj

    I’ll be sending a newsletter the first week or so of December and including a link to a free ebook/PDF: Another Look at the Advent Stories.

    If you don’t want to sign up for the newsletter, no worries, just send me a message in mid-December.

    Another Look at Advent Stories compiles the blog posts I wrote last Christmas season into one 28-page book.

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  29. Weird day yesterday. I may have been coming down with something, but, praise God, it didn’t amount to much.

    I went to bed around my usual time Wednesday night — 11 p.m. generally. Well, I think it was a little later than that, like 11:20 or 11:30 perhaps.

    Anyway, not a whole lot later than usual.

    The next morning (yesterday), I awoke to the lovely sounds of 6th Arrow practicing piano. I thought, how wonderful that she sat down to practice without my reminding her!

    I laid in bed a bit, listened to her finish her practice, then open the piano bench and close it back up again.

    A little later, I decided I should probably get up. 🙂

    Turned over. Looked at the clock on my bedside table.

    11:15.

    I kid you not.

    I have no idea why I slept that long, but I must have needed it.

    After that, I had energy like I’ve not had in a very long time. I got so much accomplished yesterday — big jobs that I’d been dreading doing. My stamina was like what I had in my teens and twenties when I was a runner.

    Four o’clock, and then out of the blue, a wave of nausea hit me. And I started thinking, that must have been why I slept so long. Must be getting something.

    But the sick feeling passed within minutes, and I got right back to work. I did get a headache after the nausea passed, and it stuck with me all evening, but it didn’t slow me down.

    I went to bed at 11:15 p.m., and I can’t remember the last time I got so many things done in a 12-hour period.

    Of course, I didn’t sleep the greatest last night, trying to go to bed 12 hours after I’d gotten up, but I feel great today.

    All I can say is, I thank God for His provision, and for giving me those wonderful teenagers I have who step up to the plate and look out for the youngest two when they know it’s needed.

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  30. Oops, I detect a double negative in my 5:25.

    “Not that that’s necessarily the same thing as the focus in yoga and such, but I, personally, didn’t feel comfortable with further pursuing that, though others may not feel the “focal point” thing is not a problem for them.”

    Cut loose one of those “not”s. 🙂

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  31. And since I mentioned running, and movie themes, here’s one more.

    I’ve got this theme in my movie themes sheet music file, and, like Jo, enjoy this one so much. Lovely tune to have stuck in one’s head. 🙂

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  32. Michelle, I clicked on your link to get your newsletter. Why does the form say in red, “There are errors below”? Can I just go ahead and fill in the form anyway?

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  33. Pretty header photo, Janice.

    Have any of you thought about Bible reading plans for next year?

    I’m getting near the end of Jeremiah now — I’m on chapter 47 of 52. I read one chapter a week in different translations. I started out the year doing six different versions, one each day Monday through Saturday, but somewhere along the line, I narrowed it down to three translations, and read from the Geneva Bible on Monday and Tuesday, the King James on Wednesday and Thursday, and the new ESV I got for Christmas last year on Friday and Saturday.

    I’d like to read the whole ESV, though, so next year I’m going to start reading that in its entirety. It will take me longer than a year, however, as I plan to do only two chapters a day, and on the same day, read the same two chapters from the King James to compare the two versions.

    Reading six days a week (I like to leave Sunday as a margin day in case I get behind), it will take me the better part of two years to read from Genesis to Revelation.

    That’s OK. I don’t think there’s any hurry.

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  34. Yes, fill in the form. I couldn’t figure out how to get to the form without going there myself which only complicates things, sigh. I’m not having a good technology day. 😦

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  37. 6 Arrows – The hospital I had Emily in was a Catholic hospital. My focal point was a cross. 🙂

    With Chrissy, I kept my eyes shut much of the time. My labor with her was more intense than with Emily.

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  38. It’s raining and is supposed to turn to snow. But we’re on the line between a dusting and 1-3″. We’ll see how much white stuff there is in the morning.

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  39. Hubby reported that the snow was just beginning as he drove home from work about a half hour ago. We don’t think it will be much, but who knows.

    Karen, now there’s a good focal point. 🙂

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  41. Tess smells like Christmas.

    She has several sticky pine-sap spots in her fur, apparently a result of the tree trimming last weekend (former owners had gardeners plant one of those little “live” potted Christmas trees in the backyard probably 20 years ago — it’s now humongous; or it was, got slashed down pretty good).

    Dogs like to lie under that tree.

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  43. It’s snowing here, too, or it was at least when my kids got home an hour ago. We’re supposed to get about three inches tomorrow (forecasts have been all over the place, but I think that’s the most recent), but we’ll see. I’m not really ready for it yet, but no one asked me.

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