37 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-28-17”

  4. “push pull
    Click click
    Change blades
    That quick”

    You can tell I just finished shaving. Most of you don’t remember when Schick came out with the injector razor. That was it’s ad.
    Before that you had to insert a razor blade into the razor and it gave you three or four shaves before it started getting rough.
    Then, the double edge razor. They don’t make those anymore. But they still make razor blades because they come in handy for other things besides shaving.

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  6. Chas, it’s a male tree swallow. (Females are brown and white.) An eastern bluebird would have reddish brown, not white, on its underside.

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  7. Sometimes we don’t understand what we are going through at the time we are going through it. Sometimes we are given the blessing of knowing why it happened.
    You all know that I was let go from a position in 2013. It almost destroyed me. I had done everything right. I had followed the rules. I have harbored resentment towards another person who claims to be a Christian over it.

    Yesterday I received the answer. Someone told me that guy was recently let go from that team. OK. Proof that revenge is a dish best served cold. I feel sorry for him. I don’t know how he is going to make it on his own as a single agent. He needed the leads that were being fed to him.

    Also, I was told the inner workings of the team after I left. It became all about the numbers not the relationships. I was told some of the things the owner of that team said to the people on it and the contracts they had to sign. If that man had said those things to me or put me under that sort of pressure to perform…I would have broken my spirit. It would have magnified all of my insecurities. I am sure I would have bounced back eventually, because that is what I do, but it would have been harder.

    Sometimes the disaster we are in protects us from the disaster we could be in. Thanks be to God.

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  9. Good Morning…thanks for sharing that this morning Kim…I needed to hear it!
    I notified my boss on Monday that I would be leaving. She insisted we talk that day…I told her no that we would talk Friday. Three times I told her no…she said she was coming over….I left. She came and my precious husband ran interference for me…he had a talk with her…he texted me and told me after his talk he was certain I made the right decision. So, I will go in on Friday, prepared to have a discussion with her, extend much grace yet stand firm in my resolve….a weight has been lifted for which I am grateful to our Lord…

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  13. NancyJill – Here is what I wrote in an email last night to my dear friend Renee-in-Minnesota. She had written something about the despondency she sometimes feels about her romantic ideals for her life not coming true. I wrote (edited somewhat):

    “I understand about the disappointment, even despondency, of having our romantic ideals about our lives not come true. There have been at least a couple “biggies” in my life that have been painful to let go.

    “An online friend, NancyJill, wrote something several years ago, on that Christian blog I’ve mentioned in the past, that touched me, & taught me a lesson in going deeper with God. She wrote about sacrificing our deepest desires to Him, laying those desires & expectations & longings on the altar of our prayers. I don’t remember her exact words, but what I just wrote captures the gist of her words.”

    Then I went on to write more details of how I have surrendered certain longings to God, & the peace that He gives in exchange.

    It is amazing that Renee is as happy as she is in life, but I do believe that comes from her faith. Her mother was emotionally & physically abusive to her. Renee once wrote that it took her a long time, when she was on her own, to learn to answer to her name. Her mom called her “You!” or nothing at all. She recently wrote that she felt like a non-entity for a long time.

    If her mom realized that there was something Renee liked to do, she wouldn’t be allowed to do it. If Renee was looking forward to something, her mom would change plans. And, as I mentioned, her mom was physically abusive, too.

    At 18, the summer after graduation, she wanted to do something (I forget what), but her mom gave her a bucket & sponge, & told her to completely clean the camper they had just used for a family get-away (there were other children, too). I can’t remember the details, but I think the camper was pretty filthy.

    Renee went out to the camper, to do as she was told, paused a couple moments, then left the bucket & sponge, & walked away. That’s how she left home.

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  15. I had a key chain with a small flashlight on it. It was handy for looking at menu’s in places where the lighting was not good for me.
    It broke. I have been looking around for a place that sells trinkets like that. Also for a flag lapel pin.
    I can’t find a place that sells them.
    Not Target, not Bed Bath & Beyond.
    But they come from somewhere.
    My iPhone has a light if I want to use it, so this is not essential. But I liked it.

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  19. Art and I went to his primary care doc for his checkup this a.m. He seemed to be doing well but has put on weight that needs to be lost (about twenty pounds). I am cooking more lately and will try to help him on this. I just wish he liked more of what I enjoy.

    Yesterday I did a lot of shopping trying to find something for son’s birthday. I ended up getting some of those quick dry lightweight t-shirts and running shorts because they are easily packed and carried on the plane. It is difficult to find small and low weight items to fit in his one small piece of luggage.

    I also found a small cart on rollers that I can put my coffee pot on. I had gotten it off the counter by putting it on the small kitchen dining table. I will be glad to get it off the table now. The little metal cart has three plastic drawers that will be helpful for being better organized in the kitchen, too. Now I need to decide what to put in those drawers.

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  20. I’d think hardware stores would carry those little keychain lights also.

    Our boss has been exceptionally nice and un-cranky this week. Weird. We are all marveling. We think it’s because he’s off on a vacation week next week (the holiday week). 🙂

    Summer is going fast, but then it always seems that way up until mid-July or so. Once the Fourth is over, it slows down — probably because that’s when we start to get our hottest weather.

    They opened the newly restored World War II pool yesterday. It’s truly awesome with its harbor view. They’re going to leave it open on the night of the 4th of July so people can watch the fireworks in the harbor below.

    Great history to it, too.

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  21. Kim, I am very thankful you shared your positive inspirational thoughts about hindsight.

    AJ, I really like the header photo. It exudes freshness.

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  22. What a story, Kizzie. It makes me sad to hear of Renee being treated that way. Way too many children are treated that way and worse. It is good to hear the stories and remember when we meet strangers that we have no idea of their pain. Praying God’s best for her.

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  23. I used to feel terrible for children who went through such things. Then I got to know some of them and watched how I treated them, and heard what some of them told others about how I was treating them. What you hear is not always what actually happened. The other day, eighteen year old mentioned that the folk in town think I am very strict. I asked what that meant. He did not know. I asked why they thought that. He did not know. I asked him if he thought I was strict. He looked at his life and said no. He looked at the troubled fifteen year olds and said no. But, based on what my children told their friends, the whole community thinks I am strict. I don’t let them do anything. I am a slave driver. In truth, they are generally pleasant giving children with a good work ethic, able to get jobs with no problem.

    Yes, they had chores. Maybe fifteen minutes a day. Maybe thirty total if they walked the dogs twice. No, they did not watch television and not hundreds of movies per year. But they traveled a lot, did karate, square dancing, shopped, watched some movies. read books, worked for other folk, had a bedtime and a get up time.

    They had the freedom to be out as long as they wanted from age fifteen on, but had to be outside of the house or in their rooms. They got to choose their roomies and often the four older boys shared one room though they did not have to. But they had to eat meals at mealtime if they were going to eat here.

    According to a couple of the young grown ones, I am evil and have done nothing but harm them. And there are people who believe that and don’t mind passing it along. What is worse, is they come alongside the poor children and oh poor you them and allow the child to build up all sorts of horrible stories. If any were true, the police would have carted me away by now. And some of the believers are folk who have known me and watched me with foster children for years! No thought that the person telling the stories might possibly be looking for sympathy.

    Yes, some folk are horribly treated. But I suspect a lot fewer than many who think they are and tell everybody that.

    Liked by 5 people

  24. Thanks for sharing your story, Mumsee. Gives us all a new perspective.
    I had a meanest mom contest with another mom. The kids decided that we both won. No tv and no dessert unless you ate your dinner, all those mean rules.

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  25. Mumsee, when I was there, those children seemed quite happy in their lives, and proud of their accomplishments like being able to cook and take care of the animals. It is sad that they have thrown those experiences away, but such an attitude may be only temporary. Sometimes, young adults in the late teens and early twenties think they can do better than their parents, but in a few years, they figure out just what their parents were up against. I have seen that sort of exaggeration of circumstances happen with other people who, like those children before they came to live with you, had been maltreated. I know of a person who was truly sexually abused as a child, but now has wildly exaggerated what happened, claiming to have been trafficked, which for reasons I cannot get into, is flatly impossible. This person has woven such a web of deceit that it would almost seem to discredit their original claim of abuse, but outside witnesses, including the abuser’s confession, attest to the core of truth. I don’t know why some former victims do that, but it almost seems to be a destructive coping mechanism, to weave a different story of victimhood than the one that truly happened.

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  26. Exactly. Most children/teens/young adults have thoughts that their life is less than perfect. As Jo mentioned. Generally, just a passing thing. But some start actually believing it all and embellishing as they go along. The more others show them sympathy, the bigger the stories.

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  27. If that sympathy is shown in material support, then the person keeps embellishing their life in order to continue that support, and eventually becomes a con artist.

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  28. All that being said, I find Renee’s story entirely believable. We were acquainted with all kinds of people growing up, and I knew a woman who was very much like what Renee’s mother is described as being. The children are now grown up and some made their way better than others, but the scars of their mother’s abuse as well as their father’s repeated abandonment are evident in all their lives. Some of them did have to just walk away for a while in order to begin their own lives better.

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  29. I tell my children that everybody has parents. Good, bad or indifferent. It is up to the individual to take the good, deal with the bad and move forward. I don’t believe there are any perfect parents. Blaming life’s challenges on the parents will get them no where.

    Again, not saying there is no child abuse, there is and it is bad. But so many people claim to have been abused when they have no idea.

    Fifteen year old daughter is a prime example. Her life is so horrible and the trials she has and so on and so on. It is like she is reading a script. I, and several adult women in her life, try to remind her of the positives which her life is full of, but she thrives on drama.

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  30. Mumsee, judging by the instructions Paul gave to fathers not to provoke their children to wrath, parents have a peculiar power to wreak havoc on their children’s lives. We cannot blame our bad behaviour on others, but neither can we erase the past as if it had never happened. I know that fifteen year old daughter is not telling the truth about her present, but it is true that her past has enough trauma in it to fill a lifetime.

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  31. I am uncomfortable with parents being placed on a sliding scale, as if good and bad parents are just on a continuum.My mother and father both made mistakes, but neither of them deliberately or willing inflicted suffering on us. We who are Christians believe that people can give themselves over to work evil. If a parent deliberately does evil to their child, then they are not just a parent who made a mistake. They have given themselves over to work darkness.

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  32. We are all works in progress and the evil and bad that has befallen us is certainly part of it. And God can bring good from it. I would not wish the evil on anybody and have seen some of the damage it causes.

    My initial comment was just that folk should take these stories with a grain of salt.

    And everybody has stuff to deal with. Behind closed doors, all parents are human. Some are the same out in public as they are at home. Some are not. Many children think their own parents are the absolute worst and everybody else has good parents. Many children (like me) grow up thinking their family is almost perfect so everybody else’s is too.

    I was surprised when I first started hearing ) from one of my bio children, what a horrid mom I was. That child no longer talks that way but it came as quite a hurt to think I had been such a horrible parent. Most of us have enough guilt over yelling at our children when they were three or some such thing, without the child growing up and telling us we weren’t very good.

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  33. There comes a time when you can no longer blame your parents for the way you are. I have spent half again as much of my life without my mother as I spent with her. While she helped to form who I am today, whatever happens to me now cannot be blamed on her….and oh how I would love to blame her for everything.

    Love you too Mumsee.

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  34. Mumsee – I understand what you are saying about the exaggeration that can happen. I’ve seen that myself.

    What makes me believe Renee is that she is a very honest woman, even when that honesty may make her look bad. She writes that although her family was not “huggy”, she began hugging her parents several years ago (she is 68 now). And she has worked to forgive her parents for their abuse.

    Her words are not written in bitterness or anger, but merely explaining to me what her childhood was like, & some of the ways it affected her behavior.

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  35. Oh, I am not questioning this case, just cautioning people to be wary. I have a son who is the picture of a kind gentle soul, interested in everything and everyone around him. Willing to help anybody. But when you look behind the screen, he is a broken little boy who desperately needs the Lord. His stories never stop and everybody wants to help him along, despite our continual requests to let him learn from his mistakes. The school, the community, the neighbors. Everybody wants to help him, to the point he still believes he does not need parents. He probably could live off of the community for a while. But he would get bored, and then the stealing or other behavior. I have met other children like him and many adults. People need to know and understand so they are not enabling. Helping is a wonderful thing but it has pretty much destroyed any hope this boy has of learning how to live in a family because people want to believe people.

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  37. Thanks for the prayers regarding my earlier request on the prayer thread (as Anonymous). I put another short-term, immediate one there just now, too. Thanks.

    Liked by 1 person

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