59 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-8-17”

  3. Well we made it to the second week in February before our first real snow of the year. We had an inch or so twice, but this one will be bigger. The forecasts are calling for 8-12 tonight into tomorrow. So I’m off to get the oil changed this morning and gas for the snow blower. 🙂

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  6. Well, that caught me by surprise. Guess it worked. Thanks Cheryl and the real!

    That’s Chocolate, Chip, and Cookie from right to left. The little house is a dog house somebody gave us, all of the kids chose that as their warm spot this year. The house you barely see on the right is a chicken house built by one of the children when he was fourteen (he is now twenty and in the Navy) that I turned into Jake’s house and is now a goat house. The loafing shed in the back is their all weather home. And in the far back is the hunting mansion (the boys built with Mike) where the boys spent one whole winter. Made them better men.

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  8. Going back to Michelle’s comment yesterday about how Christians of one flavor treat Christians of another. I have said many times I used to be the most judgmental person I knew….
    I can up in a fundamentalist Independent Methodist Church School. Catholics were the next thing to Satan, perhaps worse. I had two older women in my life who were Catholic and were very good to a lonely little girl who lived on a street with no other children. In the summertime I could go the entire summer without a friend. Sally lived down the street. Her husband died when I was in Kindergarten. When she got lonely she would call my mother and have me run 3 houses up the street to watch TV and drink coffee with her. (Yes, the source of my coffee addiction is a Catholic woman). The other was my grandfather’s lady friend. (My grandparents were married 20 years, divorced 20, and remarried 20–or there abouts).
    I was a strong willed child, at least according to what my mother wrote in my baby book, so even though Mother was Me thodist, where the “age of accountability” is 12, I constantly told her that when I was 12 I was going to join the Catholic Church. All of Mother’s family is Methodist Episcopal which is different from African Methodist Episcopal. Where mother grew up there was a small church and on one Sunday the Methodist minister would hold service and on the other the Episcopal priest would hold service. I had had enough of anything to do with “Methodists” especially the Independent variety and Episcopal was as close as I could figure out how to get to Catholic since I couldn’t drive and no one was signing up to take me. So that is the direction I went.
    My father’s family was Baptist, except that sometime in her teens my grandmother took a turn towards the Pentacostal flavor of Christianity and raised all of her children in the Assembly of God church. I have to admit that “speaking in tongues” scared me a little. Remember I went to the Independent Methodist School where Satan was hiding everywhere, especially in popular music, movies, and anyone who wasn’t like us. If you could think to do it there was a 99% chance it was a sin. I once attended Assembly of God Church Camp where they had a Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It freaked me out. My friend’s father was an Assembly of God minister and he followed me outside to explain that part of what I saw inside was real and part was people wanting it to be real. (He later ran off with the church secretary, but that is a whole different story and certainly did damage to his children).

    Now? I try to be accepting. When I find myself being judgmental I take a deep breath and back up. As I told Michelle when she was here, even the Baptists observe Lent when it comes to eating fish on Fridays. My criteria these days are “Do you believe in God? Is Jesus Christ your personal Saviour?” Beyond that I don’t care …well…maybe I am lying. After this last election I LOATHE the label of EEE VAN Gell icle. I never want to hear another Christian referred to by the media again as an evangelical.

    So I will leave you with this:

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  11. Chas, they did and they are rather pleased with their work. Clearly, from the angle of the picture, we are not into straight lines around here but the hunting mansion is plumb.

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  12. That hunting mansion is deceptive–it looks on my computer like a birdhouse stuck on the pole closest to the front of the pen.

    Thanks for the explanation.

    I don’t know, Kim. Maybe we’re all better off because the church is full of broken people. Think how awful it would be if the Christians were perfect.

    Well, the churches would have plenty of seating every Sunday.

    I’ve been a member of too many denominations to judge one over the other, but I’ll prefer the liturgical ones as long as they remain true to the Word of God.

    But, that still means I have love one another. 🙂

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  15. When I was a child I slept in a few strange places with my siblings or friends. The greenhouse my folks had and the back of a truck under an old parachute come to mind. Sleeping anywhere but in my own bed was considered fun. One time the whole family slept in the living room by a fireplace. The electricity had gone off because of a storm. It was great. My mom parents had another idea about that, I bet.

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  16. Kathaleena, one night as a child, when we were allowed to sleep in the living room (which we did periodically), I decided to see if I could sleep on my side on the floor between the couch and a chair (there wasn’t room to sleep in any position except on my side, even though I was a very thin child). I managed it, and I was pleased with myself . . . but the adult me sees the “dare to myself” as kinda silly. 🙂

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  18. Carol will be very happy there. Well, maybe not happy. She’ll be cold.

    My next-door neighbors — who have lived here longer than anyone — are not believers and sometimes will let comments slip about their not-too-favorable view of some Christian folk (whom they seem to consider uppity and judgmental). So I was pleased when the wife one day said to me how she felt I was different & never judged or looked down on anyone.

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  19. I try to be that way, though sometimes I fail. 😦

    We had a heavy mist with fog all night here, but today & tomorrow *should* be mostly free of rain. Rain returns on Friday again but only for a day, then sunshine for a while after that.

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  22. Hunting Mansion specs:
    the room is twelve by twelve feet.
    the deck is eight by twelve,
    the whole thing is eleven feet off the ground.
    it is on stilts in a marsh with eight concrete footings, twelve inch circular pilings
    it has chains to hold it down in high winds.

    it has stood there for five years without shifting.
    the boys did the roof, which put them higher than I cared to watch.

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  24. Mumsee,

    That’s a nice one. And all males love to make forts/tree houses. It’s a rite of passage in some places. Tell Mike nice job with helping them experience that. 🙂

    I’m 50, and I still want to go in it and shoot birds ….stuff, with my BB gun. 😯

    In my day I had to hide in a metal shed and try from the ground.

    And it was uphill to get there, both ways. In the snow………. 🙂

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  26. To the left you can see the pine trees we planted over ten years ago. Between them and the goats, you can see the triple fencing. The pine trees and apple trees should be much bigger by now. Goats can be hard on trees.

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  29. So I’ve thankfully moved into 1 Samuel and I was reading about Hannah giving Samuel to Eli at the Shiloh temple when he was old enough. The next chapter talks about how bad Eli’s sons were and I spent some time considering how difficult it would be to complete a vow–giving that only child back to God–when you were putting him into an ugly situation.

    Sometimes obedience to God doesn’t make any sense–but if we stick to it and commit our ways despite what our eyes see–God’s glory will be revealed.

    I still would have had a hard time leaving my baby and would have doubted God . . . .

    So, let’s hear it for Hannah.

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  33. Happy Birthday, Jo.

    Fifth Arrow really enjoyed his day yesterday — out with Dad and Uncle, home for present-opening, movie-watching (The Aristocats), baked spaghetti (his favorite dish), birthday pie (pumpkin), and two phone calls from his apartment-dwelling siblings. Ear-to-ear smiles and a spring in his step much of the day — such a blessing to see his joy. He loves being thirteen! 🙂

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  36. Feeling so touched by a gift from my Minnesota friend, Renee.

    Renee & I have clicked in a big way in our online friendship. We are similar in many ways, but very different in others. Her fondness for me has been a sweet blessing, & I am very fond of her, too. The way she writes about what she thinks of me has lifted my spirits at times when I was not feeling appreciated by my family.

    So Renee decided she wanted to send me a gift. She says she loves to give gifts to others, but doesn’t want others to reciprocate. The box she sent me had three gifts – a lovely ceramic bird with a little smile that reminded her of me, a polished stone imprinted with a fancy cross, & a wall hanging that is so me. It is a cutely decorated heart with a smaller heart hanging from it. It really looks like something a little girl might have, but it’s adorable to me. I put it up where I would have to pass it several times each day.

    My heart was so touched by these little gifts, that I broke down & cried with gratitude to God as the Holy Spirit ministered His love to me.

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  37. I’ll let you know if I make it that far. So far I can only guarantee that if I make it to 80 I am going to take up smoking, drinking, chasing men, eating sweets, and salting my food. I shall sleep til noon

    When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
    With a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me,
    And I shall spend my pension
    on brandy and summer gloves
    And satin sandals,
    and say we’ve no money for butter.
    I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
    And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
    And run my stick along the public railings,
    And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
    I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
    And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens,
    And learn to spit.
    You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
    And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
    Or only bread and pickle for a week,
    And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
    and things in boxes.
    But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
    And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
    And set a good example for the children.
    We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
    But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
    So people who know me
    are not too shocked and surprised,
    When suddenly I am old
    and start to wear purple!

    Jenny Joseph

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  42. Looks like a good book

    https://cruciformpress.com/satisfied-waiting/

    ______________________________

    One of the longest patterns of recurring intercessory prayer in my life has been directed at a single goal: that my teenage son might be able to speak. If I could heal just one aspect of his condition, if I could give just one gift to address his many ailments, it would be the gift of speech. Most of his frustration, and much of our collective family frustration, comes from Jake’s inability to communicate effectively on a regular basis. …

    … I have waited and waited for God to answer this prayer. At times it seems like heaven is brass to my plea. But the longer I live the more I realize that in God’s merciful ways and grace-filled applications he has sent me many answers, even as I wait for the ultimate answer.

    I asked God specifically to give Jake words. God graciously granted five….

    ….. For me, all of this illustrates the difference between an answer to prayer and the answer to prayer.

    Our sovereign Lord has the ability to grant anything we ask at any time. He is generous and kind and loving and cares for us beyond our wildest imaginations. We can be assured that when we are genuinely hungry and ask for food, he will give us bread and fish, not stones and snakes. But sometimes, if we ask for steak and shrimp, bread and fish may not seem like the answer we were looking for.

    I think the appetizer is meant to increase our desire for the main course. Such has been the case in my own prayer life. My heavenly Father, in his infinite wisdom, has answered all my prayers for Jake—with glimpses of the greatness to come. He has granted a foretaste of his glory by revealing the shadow of his coming blessings.

    We still live in a fallen, sin-stained world. Even the best things here are mere silhouettes of what God has in store for us on that day when sin is no more. But we can be assured of this—he has more in store for us than we could ever think to ask for.

    The full answers to our prayers and the full glory of God’s blessings will only come in eternity—and then they will last for eternity. But for now, informed by Scripture, and full of godward faith and biblical hope, our anticipation of what’s to come protects us from trusting in the temporal things by keeping us longing for the eternal things. In this life it is vital and necessary that, to one degree or another, we remain dissatisfied. The tension is that, here, all our prayers are answered, but all our prayers also await ultimate answers. ….
    ___________________________

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  45. That thing passed by so quickly it was frustrating. And if you hold the little red thing at the bottom, the screen freezes and you can’t see anything.

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