It’s Friday, so please remember to pray for Mumsee, Mike, and the Nestlings.
Anyone else?
Psalm 48
1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion,
the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish
shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
forever.
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
view her citadels,
that you may tell of them
to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.
Wandering Views 
Okay, I know that just yesterday I was telling Kim to give BG to God, but today I am once again crying over my Chickadee’s situation, which goes to show ya that giving a child to God doesn’t mean we still don’t struggle with worries over them. (Although if we truly trust God with them, those worries should lessen, even cease. I still have work to do on that.)
YF has been ranting about some things (she has a very skewed perspective on reality), which reminded me again how poisonous her influence over Chickadee is. Chickadee really admires YF, & I sometimes hear YF’s words or attitudes coming out of her mouth. I feel like my daughter is living in the enemy’s territory, & it breaks my heart for her. (One of the traits of Asperger’s, & I’ve seen it in her, is to take on the traits or preferences of close friends.)
So, one prayer request I have is for God to break the influence YF & her sister have over Chickadee, to open her eyes to see through them, so to speak. A prayer I pray quite often is for the Lord to grant them (my girls & the McK girls, & Little Guy, too) godly discernment in everything they see, hear, & experience.
Another prayer request is something I have felt led to pray for YF lately. She has so much compassion for those in the LGBTQ community, but her compassion is misdirected. She thinks she is being compassionate by accepting them as they are, & trying to convince everyone else to do the same. (Unfortunately, her way of “convincing” is to refer to people as hateful bigots if they disagree.) My prayer is for God to open her eyes & understanding, & to turn her compassion & aim to one of seeing the LGBT folks as broken people in need of repentance, salvation, deliverance, & healing. I can imagine God one day giving her a ministry to them. (But first, she needs to go through some repentance & deliverance herself.)
Sorry this is so long. Thank you for any prayers for all these young women so in need of our Savior. (And for the other young women that have been brought up fro prayer here.)
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While reading and praying through prayer thread posts I realized how many are eggshell walking. I have been going through difficult times, but I am not walking on eggshells at the moment. I pray peace for all who are dreading holiday gatherings with disagreeable people. I pray for Grace to be given by all as words and looks are exchanged. I pray for restraints upon speaking mouths so only words of encouragement and praises of God are said and heard. May edification become the goal, and may each person enter conversation in a humble manner thinking more highly of others than of oneself. Please, Lord, may it be Your will that hearts will be moved to recognize the dangerous times in which we live and how love for family members is a greater priority than having victory in some minor battle of words and expectations.
In Jesus, Amen
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Prayers for families and our nation. There seems to be almost a ‘hysteria’ spreading in the wake of this election that really worries me.
My neighbors’ family (I mentioned this the other day) is very anti-Trump (DIL is Mexican-American, a school teacher who’s very passionate) and is hosting their Thanksgiving dinner this year (with warnings to my Trump-supporting neighbors that anti-Trump discussion is likely to occur at the table this year). My neighbors actually were thinking of just not going. 😦
And social media is spinning out of control with some of the angry, negative political posts, some of us have just backed off using it for a while until people can calm themselves down.
It’s like the nation is hyperventilating.
God is sovereign in even this, of course, but I’m praying for a calming spirit of acceptance to emerge soon (at least until the new president takes over and actually does something to make people upset!).
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Kizzie, why do we see homosexuality as wrong, in a cultural climate that says that one can “love” anyone? Because God says it is wrong, and He is the One who made us, and He has a right to say so. That is enough.
But it makes complete and total sense that someone who rejects Scripture and rejects God’s authority (even someone who claims to accept some of it) would insist that homosexuality is acceptable.
In other words, this argument simply does not matter. An unbeliever won’t see it through God’s eyes, and her acceptance of homosexuality won’t damn her. Her rejection of Christ as the only way to God will do so. I don’t remember; it may be that she is claiming to be a believer and you think her claim is credible. Either way, I think this is a non-issue and you need to let it go. I am not saying that she is right; she isn’t. I’m saying that you are the last person to convince her of this, and in trying you are just presenting yourself (to her) as less compassionate than she is. I would be inclined not to engage with her at all unless you happen to see her, and to stay off this issue then. It isn’t helpful. Homosexual people are made in the image of God, and as such they deserve respect and love–agree on that and let the rest go. She cannot see it as sin until she agrees with God, and you cannot make her do so.
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My neighbors get the MRI results in about 2 hours (11 a.m. Pacific time), keep them in prayer.
Cheryl’s right, before I was a believer I worked for a Hollywood publishing company where I was one of the few straight people in the office. Politically and culturally, I would have had no problem saying gays should be able to marry at that time (in my mid 20s). Nor did I have any particular problem with abortion.
Once I came to know Christ, I began to see those kinds of issues in a very different light.
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Kizzy, your prayer request for your daughters is what I have long prayed for. Your chickadee IS in the land of the enemy. Thank God for His mighty power and love! May He hold you and comfort you and ruffle up the nests that He needs to ruffle.
I like the Rosario book and the Yuan’s book on this subject. They (rightly) point out the bigger issue of purity and pride, instead of narrowing all down to one’s sexuality.
I agree with Cheryl. YF is so lost. 😦 Praying that will change one day.
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Husband is off to drive truck for a while. Got a phone call from the school this morning, seems fifteen year old has been making poor decisions at school and will be eating and breaking with the principal for the foreseeable future. He was given two days but went back to the classroom gloating that it was worth it for only two days. The principal did not care for that attitude. We are happy with this result and it is good to see that this principal is more aware.
Prayer for wisdom and strength. Thanks.
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Cheryl – I do stay away from that subject with YF. In fact, I rarely comment on her stuff anymore, & refrain from commenting on those kinds of hot button issues. (Although, on the comment thread of one of my own Facebook posts, I did recently defend the matter of religious liberty to not have to service gay weddings when she painted those people as hating gays, & I pointed out that those business owners are not against serving gays in their regular business. But my original post wasn’t about that subject at all.)
I agree that views on homosexuality or those other issues will not keep anyone from salvation, but I also view broad acceptance of those things to be very harmful for our children.
It may have been on this blog (don’t remember where I saw it) that I read that Oregon has made “non-binary” an official gender. YF & her sister helped convince Chickadee that she is non-binary herself (I don’t know if she still believes that). Another thing I saw recently – With the current push for full acceptance of people who think they are really the opposite sex, the number of children (I think the article specifically mentioned pre-schoolers) claiming that has grown quite a bit. And instead of realizing that it is something they will grow out of, parents are helping them “transition”, even with harmful drug/hormone therapies.
In hindsight, knowing what I know now, I truly believe that it was because of YF & her sister’s influence to reject what she’d been taught about homosexuality that led to Chickadee dropping out of church. (YF has written that churches that do not accept the homosexuality & gay marriage, etc., are “not nearly biblically accurate enough” for her.)
Even though I seem to be emphasizing it here, I am not one to think that it is the ultimate sin. But I do think the push for full acceptance of all the things those initials (LGBTQ etc.) stand for is harmful to people, especially the children who will grow up believing all of that. It is a trend that only God can stop, & I pray for Him to be merciful to our people by granting them (us) a spirit of “repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and bring them to their senses and deliver them from the snare of the devil.” (from 2 Timothy 2:25)
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I’ve mentioned it before, but I don’t know if you remember, YF’s sister is Chickadee’s lifelong best friend, & she claims to be a lesbian. (YF says her own views on the matter were well-formed before Sister came out, though.)
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Sadly, it seems some people will help a teen change his sex without parental permission. I remember when we had to fight to keep certain people or groups from taking girls to get abortions–all without parental knowledge before or after. 😦
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I feel sad for both the parents and the older teenagers who fall into the beliefs concerning the alternative views on sexuality. It is purely wrong when parents decide their young child should be different than how they were born. That makes me mad. I think I saw something awhile back that said the American Pediatricians group decided that parents who try to change their children’ s sexual orientation are harming their children.
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