70 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-14-15”

  2. Good morning from the hospital. The IV went in on the first try. Good start, better than usual 🙂

    I have a good space for waiting. We are at my favorite hospital. It does not have the assembly line feel of the main Emory campus hospital.

    Thanks for prayers.

    I can’t see the header picture on this phone.

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  7. O9h, thank you, friends. This is my favorite hospital because it has reminders of God and Jesus everywhere. I am sitting at a desk with three pictures of angels right beside me. They are keeping me company. There is a beautiful nativity scene outside the hospital. It is peaceful here.

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  9. Catching up on yesterday.
    I don’t mind secular Christmas music. I like White Christmas and some of the others
    Except for Rudolph. I’ll never forgive Gene Autry for that.
    It is said that Gene never liked .it, his wife persuaded him to record it.

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  10. The surgeon just came out. They can’t blast the stone today, but she did a few things that needed to happen. He got one stent out and another in to dialate so that stone can be blasted later. So far all is working okay today, but wish we could have it all over with. Everything is going over into the next tax season.

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  12. I love Christmas music…Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…I’ll be home for Christmas…if only in my dreams…The First Noel….Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I heard the Bells on Christmas Day, There’s a Song in The Air. Our home was filled with music as I was growing up…Christmas tree…lights, Christmas Eve service at church…tradition. I don’t like most of the newer secular “Christmas” music and lunge at the radio to turn it off when it comes over the air waves, but I have most of my preferred music downloaded on my ipod….Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and the Carpenters Christmas Albumn of course!!

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  15. Two things happened yesterday at church which weighed on me the rest of the day.

    They should not have, but they did.

    In Sunday school, we were discussing David being confronted by Nathan and one woman commented that she had been confronted for her grumbling attitude years ago. Her “Nathan” had called and asked, “do you even hear yourself anymore? Your grumbling brings down everyone.”

    She said that admonition had helped her. It bothered her that her grumbling affected others.

    During the second service, my fellow clarinetist had a bad day. She’s having surgery this morning at 10 CA time, if you’d pray for Lynn. This surgery is on her wrist and she will be out from playing at least 8 weeks–and playing music is her life.

    Something that should have been shrugged off unhinged her and we got through the service, but she was grumbling and miserable with self-pity afterwards. Brushed off prayer and apologies and went home.

    I shook my head over all that, told her I would pray and ask others to pray ([pointing fingers at you], but I took home her restlessness and could not settle down the entire day. I finally took myself for an hour walk just before dusk and that helped some, but I don’t know if I was overtired, affected by her and my husband steered clear of me.

    I prayed about whatever it was quite a bit–we both recognized something was off–but I never did really shake it, though I tried to manage it (with prayer, will and personal chiding).

    I went to bed at 9 o’clock and slept well, so here’s hoping I’m back to normal this morning.

    What do you think my problem was? Am I reading too much into the grumbling comment/behavior?

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  16. 1. Linda, I was thinking the same thing.
    2. Michelle, I don’t ever see you as grumbling. We ALL know I grumble the most of anyone here.
    3. I think I will go find one of my favorite secular Christmas songs to make us all happy or irritated, because I know of one person who doesn’t like part of this song, but it makes me smile and want to cry at the same time.

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  17. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 14: A traditional carol, first published in A Collection of Dorset Carols (1926):
    Sing! Sing all earth! Eternal praises sing,
    To our Redeemer and our heavenly King!

    Shepherds arise, be not afraid;
    With hasty steps repair
    To David’s city: see the maid
    With her blest Infant there.

    For us the saviour came on earth,
    For us his life he gave,
    To save us from eternal death,
    And raise us from the grave.

    To Jesus Christ, our glorious King,
    Be endless praises given.
    Let all on earth his mercies sing,
    Who made our peace in heaven!

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  19. For Cheryl and any other bird lovers, Christianbook.com has this edition on sale for $7.99 and I think shipping is free today:
    The Birds, Our Teachers–Collector’s Edition with DVD

    John Stott

    This would make a beautiful gift, too.

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  20. And this is the one I have been enjoying most the past couple of years. During Advent we sing this song as the priests and the children of the church process in. One of the children reads the Advent reading for that Sunday and another child lights the candle on the Advent Wreath. We finish the song as the children go to Godly Play.
    Yesterday we had FOUR babies in the back of the church. When mine was an infant I wanted to keep her quiet so she wouldn’t disturb anyone in church. Now I find myself smiling at the sounds they make and a tightness in my chest. After service one of the mothers was in a room nursing. I couldn’t help myself, I had to go in, speak to her, and gaze at the baby. He was perfection. We spoke just a little about what a special time it was just mother and baby.

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  21. Re my above post, I’ll share ALL of Oswald Chambers this morning:

    Whenever a thing becomes difficult in personal experience, we are in danger of blaming God, but it is we who are in the wrong, not God, there is some perversity somewhere that we will not let go. Immediately we do, everything becomes as clear as daylight. As long as we try to serve two ends, ourselves and God, there is perplexity. The attitude must be one of complete reliance on God.

    When once we get there, there is nothing easier than living the saintly life; difficulty comes in when we want to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own ends.
    Whenever you obey God, His seal is always that of peace, the witness of an unfathomable peace, which is not natural, but the peace of Jesus.

    Whenever peace does not come, tarry till it does or find out the reason why it does not. If you are acting on an impulse, or from a sense of the heroic, the peace of Jesus will not witness; there is no simplicity or confidence in God, because the spirit of simplicity is born of the Holy Ghost, not of your decisions. Every decision brings a reaction of simplicity.

    My questions come whenever I cease to obey. When I have obeyed God, the problems never come between me and God, they come as probes to keep the mind awake and amazed at the revelation of God.

    Any problem that comes between God and myself springs out of disobedience; any problem, and there are many, that is alongside me while I obey God, increases my ecstatic delight, because I know that my Father knows, and I am going to watch and see how He unravels this thing.

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  22. In regards to the two posts, when I think back over yesterday, “was I disobedient?” I come to this incident on the way home from church.

    I spent a couple hours yesterday scanning old photos and then burning them on to CDs to mail to my family this morning. (I was going to be standing in line at the post office anyway). I had to do it because my cousin and others couldn’t manage Dropbox and photos (there were ultimately 122) are too big to send in one batch and WAY too cumbersome to send one at a time to a dozen people.

    I was tired after attending one service, Sunday School and then playing a second service, but I needed to get that done yesterday.

    I wanted to scan while I watched a movie with my husband, rather than holed up in my office. However, I had lost all the flash drives. (They’re probably hiding with the socks somewhere). So, I needed to stop at Walgreens on the way home and buy one.

    Except, I don’t shop on Sundays unless it’s an emergency.

    Technically, this wasn’t an emergency.There were awkward alternatives I could have used, but I decided to stop anyway.

    On the way, I was nearly hit head-on by someone driving too fast.

    Maybe I shouldn’t stop?

    I stopped.

    While there, I ran into one of the challenging prophets from our church (I don’t know if she has a mental or emotional disorder; she’s not a person you can or really want to be chummy with, but she has a real sense of prayer and she’s latched on to us–calling us and telling us how wonderful we are, and praying. I think we need to pay attention to people like that–God can speak to us anyway He wants; we just have to listen, particularly from an unlikely character like this one).

    It was an odd encounter, I asked if she needed a ride (she doesn’t drive, was wearing a sweater and it was pouring). She wanted a ride to a different store across town and I was way too tired to do that, so I shook my head.

    I waved down a clerk to buy the flash drive and when I turned around, she had disappeared. Poof. Did I dream her?

    A flap on buying the flash drive, I’m still disgruntled, confused about the woman who disappeared, and now paranoid I’m going to be killed driving home in my car.

    {I tell you, very strange day}.

    I made it home safely.

    But, after reading the OC passage above, I wonder if I got into my mess because of that act of disobedience of shopping on Sunday?

    I’m not calling out anyone else, this is just me.

    And BTW, I scanned in my office and never needed the flash drive.

    What a confusion.

    Feel free to comment, or not. I’m a bit mystified.

    And will spend the morning shopping and standing in line at the post office! LOL

    Penance.

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  23. This is the end of me, I promise. Last week for my Bible study we examined O Come, O Come, Emmanuel like a Biblical text/English assignment. We took it apart, looked at the pertinent Scripture and discussed the deeper meaning. Really interesting.

    But in prep, I read up on a lot of Christmas carols and have spent the season tormenting my husband with arcane facts.

    Did you know O Come, O Come Emmanuel is the oldest known Christmas carol? 🙂

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  25. Interesting, michelle. I was very surprised by the last verse of this song, when I heard it sung in my daughter’s church. I looked online and found different versions of the verse which begins, “O Come, desire of nations bind…” I had a different sense of what it was saying when I heard it, but in looking it up, I cannot quarrel with what I have found so far.

    It is one of my favorite Advent songs and wish we would sing it more in church.

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  26. Michelle, it sounds a bit like spiritual warfare and mixed with too much to do in too little time.

    I still have mixed feelings about shopping and even dining out on Sunday, and then that makes me think about Saturday being the Sabbath as an alternative which in our area with a large portion of Orthodox Jews, we see a lot as a reminder. I am still sorting out those things. Jesus helped people on the Sabbath, sacrificing time and resources as an example. Would He oppose you doing so and consider you disobedient? Then there is the question of pictures being images…the questioning can go on and on. Pray for understanding guidance from the Holy Spirit.
    🙂

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  27. The SS lesson next Sunday is Matt. 2. About the wise men bringing gifts.
    Have you ever considered that?
    Much has been made of the star. But the amazing thing to me is that these magi from the East (Persia?) would come with gifts to the baby King of Israel. This wasn’t an easy journyr. They wouldn’t bring gifts to a baby king of Egypt or Rome. But the King of Israel warranted expensive gifts.
    There’s something significant about that.

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  28. I love ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ too — but also Rudolph by Gene Autry, I think I grew up with that little yellow record spinning on our record player. 🙂 Sorry chas.

    Janice, prayers — kind of glad today was easier even though they didn’t do all they wanted to. But this gives him more recovery time in between? And hopefully the next procedure won’t be as traumatic. Will he get to come home or have to stay overnight? Make a big pot of chicken soup for the both of you.

    Boy, michelle, that was a strange day — I’ve had days like that, where things are just upended (mostly internally) and it is a very unsettling feeling.

    I was a bit “off” yesterday myself. I felt very sleepy all through church and it started out bad when I was a few minutes late (meaning I had to wait with other late arrivals in the lobby of shame until they opened the doors for us during the first song).

    When i went in, the friend I usually sit with was sitting in the “back bench” line of chairs that now (ever since our remodel) rim the walls all the way around the sanctuary. I can see where those are convenient in some circumstances, but this was the 2nd week in a row she chose to camp out back there. So I’ve sat with her but hate sitting way back on the wall like like (there were plenty of seats available in the main sections). Grump. Grump.

    Then the SS started really late and the discussion wasn’t nearly as interesting as I thought it would be. grump.

    I suppose I’ll try to get to church early next week and grab a seat closer in then maybe my friend will find me and join me there? Norma always liked sitting in the back but I prefer sitting a *little* closer — and also away from the worship band (yesterday and the week before we were on the wall on the band side of the hall, worst of both worlds in my mind).

    OK, so there’s my grouchy Sunday. I didn’t even realize I was grumpy until I thought back on it this morning. Hmm.

    On the plus side I did finally get that heater filter swapped out yesterday afternoon, the new one is in and the heater WORKS. Loving the warmth, dreading the gas bills to come …

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  31. I don’t like secular Christmas music because it usually involves snow. The closest I have ever come to a white Christmas was a few years back when we had about half an hour of flurries. Not even enough to make a milk and bread run. I have picked flowers on Christmas day. I just don’t relate to the snow imagery.

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  32. I also try to avoid shopping on Sundays, but will hit the grocery store on the way home from church to pick up work lunch produce so it’s as fresh as possible. My observance is somewhat modified, I suppose, as I’d never dream of going to a mall or doing the same kinds of things I’d do on a Saturday.

    But as generally a bad advance planner in life, I’m not as strictly observant as I should be either.

    Reminds me of my former church, though, where we had a hard-nosed by-the-(extra)-book elder who terrified me. One Sunday I really had to stop at Target to pick something up after church (I don’t remember what, but I’d convinced myself it was “necessary” 🙄 ) — and when I looked in my rear view mirror on the way to the store, I realized he and his wife were right behind me (the church was just down the street, we’d all just left).

    As I recall, I got through a traffic light that they got caught behind and so I sped up a bit to make a quick, undetected (I’d hoped!) turn into the Target parking lot. But I felt extremely guilty about it (and as you can see, I still remember it!).

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  35. In another life I taught Disciple Bible Study. We discussed working on Sunday and a real estate agent (I wasn’t one at the time) made the commitment not to have open houses on Sunday. As far as I know she still sticks to that. I refuse to answer the phone until after 12 on Sunday, but it really isn’t feasible for me to go all day. When I call them back after 12 I state that I just got out of church. It isn’t me saying “oh I am a wonderful Christian and I was in church you reprobate”. It is me managing the expectation if they call on another Sunday. They won’t get mad if they call me at 10:15 and I don’t call back until 12:15.
    I sometimes think we over think things in our lives. I know that I do. With all that has gone on with BG do you not think I trip down guilty/memory lane? I spilled my heart to a friend last week and she said, “STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!” I often think I was born guilty. I have had Jewish friends tease me about being born into the wrong family.
    I often stop at Publix on the way home from church…many of us from church greet each other! Sometimes our Priest Associate and his wife are running through as well.

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  38. Wow, I’ll have revisit that post, what was I trying to say??

    The weather is frightening out there, thanks probably to El Nino:

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/14/california-hit-with-chilly-blast-as-east-coast-keeps-warm/?intcmp=hplnws

    __________________________________

    A blast of wintry weather could keep Southern California’s temperatures in the 50s Monday, but the thermometer could hit the upper 60s in parts of New York and Pennsylvania.

    A weekend storm that dumped rain and snow on Southern California had largely moved out Monday, leaving behind temperatures about 10 degrees colder than normal. Overnight temperatures dipped into the 30s in Los Angeles County, and will barely top 60 during the day.

    A high surf advisory is in effect for San Diego County through Tuesday, with waves up to 8 feet expected.

    Drivers are urged to use caution on mountain roads where wind gusts up to 70 mph are predicted. Chains are required on several roads after snow fell on the San Bernardino Mountains. …
    ____________________________________

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  39. I don’t care for this video but unless I go in the attic and come back to type the story out for you (which would cause Michelle and Cheryl some grieft) this is as closing as I can get to telling you the story.

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  44. Michelle, I too try to avoid shopping on Sundays. My husband has no such compunction, but we generally don’t, partly (I think) because he knows I don’t like to. (I haven’t resisted when he has wanted to stop and get something.)

    I haven’t hesitated to eat out on Sunday, though, and that’s partly because I don’t think we have any absolute prohibition against it, and partly because in Nashville “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” seemed really to apply in my case. Most of the church went out to eat, and church was the only place I dependably saw people. I needed that time with people, didn’t see any way to make freelance and living alone work if I didn’t have those two to three times a week with people that were a bare basic necessity. (I had housemates sometimes, but less than half the time. My next-door neighbors walked several times a day and I was welcome to go with them anytime they went, so I joined them about once a day–but they traveled for a living, so that daily walk wasn’t a part of my schedule more than a third or so of the time.)

    Now, at this point in my life, I told my husband I’m not used to cooking for a family, and if Sunday rest means anything at all, it means I cannot be cooking on Sunday, and somehow I need him to take it off me. So usually that means we go through a drive-through on the way home. Once a month it means a church dinner (for which I cook). Sometimes it means we eat leftovers from the fridge. I usually end up making sandwiches or something Sunday night, and really truly I don’t even want to do that much. But at least I have the noon meal “off,” and the supper meal nearly always I make something for just the two of us and leave the girls to fend for themselves.

    But in answer to what I think you were asking, yes, another’s heavy dose of griping really can be a downer. Sometimes I think it’s fair to say something about it, though personally I find that hard to do.

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  45. Dogs are heading in for grooming at 1, yay. That’s the one thing I like about taking them to the PetCo “chain” grooming department, they can get them in quick (I had a choice of today or tomorrow, decided to just get it over with asap; that way I don’t have to worry about it later in the week).

    I’ve used other independent groomers in the past who often have 2-3 week waiting lists.

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  46. There were some in our former church who didn’t like going out to eat on Sunday — based on the idea that it was forcing others to work (by serving them) on the Sabbath.

    But with holiday staffing at restaurants and stores the workers sometimes (often/usually?) volunteer for those shifts because it’s good overtime.

    OK, back to sorting through that stack of old clothes …

    Staycations. It’s really the only chance I get to do some of this stuff. 😦

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  49. I set a timer and made BG sit outside in the sun today for 30 minutes. Mr P had bought Subway for lunch. I sat out with her to eat her pizza and we talked. She had her second meeting with the drug councelor at school today. The woman asked how she and I were doing and if we had gotten closer. BG told her that yes we had. She was on restriction, so she pretty much stayed up my hiny and begged me to go places with her. She will have a meeting to go to tonight and another on Wednesday. Now she is bored and is cleaning house.

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  50. Ever have days where you’ve got so much to do, you don’t get any of it done because you’re in such a tizzy about it all?

    That’s been my day so far. :-/

    Where’s Mumsee? Are they still kidding at The Nest? 🙂

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  52. You can’t see the screen of your phone in the sun.

    I gave her a book and told her to read. We later went to Target (I had to let someone in a building) and I bought two books for her. When we came home she read for a while, cleaned the kitchen, her bathroom, her room, wrapped a Christmas present for me, and is now gone to the gas station with quarters to vacuum out her car—See what all you can accomplish if you aren’t “hanging out with your friends smoking pot”? Amazing!!!!!

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  58. Sitting in the sun makes me happy and considering that she is often Vitamin D deficient I thought sitting in the sun would be good and healthy for her.
    Now, what do you think my chances are of getting her up at 5:20 in the morning to go to a 5:45 exercise class with me? Sheesh, what do do think the chances are of getting me up at 5:15?

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  60. I don’t get up before it’s light if I can help it. 🙂

    So I got a craving for chili and looked up a good “healthy” recipe online for a slow cooker. But somehow shopping for it took so much longer than I’d anticipated, there were some unusual things that I normally don’t look for (and all low-sodium — I scored on some of that, but not on all).

    I was so tired after the shopping, I may wait until tomorrow to make it now. 🙂

    Ah, just got the call from the groomer, the dogs are ready.

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  63. I just had to get the number of how old I am…. 🙂
    The furnace guy just left….he got the dumb thing working…but we are still going to go ahead and have a new one installed on Thursday….higher efficiency…warranty…no more fixing parts every year. The old one is original to the house…17 years old….it’s time….

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  64. Oh, I just noticed that Tess’ bandanna is red-and-green. Very festive. But she already lost one of her read ear bows on the ride home. We’ll see how long the 2nd one lasts … No bows for Cowboy, of course. 🙂

    My heater was installed after I moved in here (1997) so I suppose it’s aging as well, but it’s a forced air system … The pre-existing wall heater was kaput, something I didn’t find out until after I’d moved in and the gas company refused to re-light the pilot.

    That first fall/winter was so cold (an El Nino year, 1997-98).

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  65. I finally told Art the kidney stone blasting did not happen today and that we get to do it all again. I told him that after going to the Kroger pharmacy and after a fruitful visit to their dessert section where I bought several goodes: carrot cake roll, a chocolate yummy creamy small truffle cake, and a large key lime pie. The bad news went down easier with something sweet to think about.

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  67. We are not having all those for dessert tonight 🙂
    The carrot cake roll and the chocolate cake thingies were on sale so we are having them first. A few days later we will have the key lime pie.

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  69. I found a heavy-duty, good-quality display box to give my husband for Christmas, in which the folded flag we have (that was first presented to my MIL at my FIL’s funeral, and then passed along to us) will be displayed.

    $50 originally, but the craft shop where I bought the display box had it marked 50% off, so I got it for only $25 + tax. Sweet.

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