73 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-27-17”

  2. Some interesting discussions last night while I was snoozing.
    I would have liked to join the discussion on dispensationalist. Most of the people in FBC Hendersonville are dispensationalists. They are good people, but, I think, misled on this.

    As for “letting go”. You have to let go. The past won’t let you stay there. It doesn’t mean that the memories, nay, everything you are, is connected to your past.
    Even the things you wish didn’t happen.
    But you have to move ahead from where you are now.
    You need to consider the future.
    Deal with the present.
    Remember, even honor, the past.
    But you can’t stay there.

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  3. Peter, yes, a 17 lb. turkey will stay quite hot an hour out of the oven. And you need to let it “rest” a while, anyhow, in order to carve it nicely.

    6 Arrows – we have all of those same services, too, except for the Thanksgiving “eve” one.

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  4. I like this male cardinal shot. Not only is he in a blue spruce with snow on the branches, but it is still actively snowing. Male cardinals seem quite conscious that they are brightly colored and can be seen from half a mile away (literally–or at least a quarter mile). When they sing to announce they are the biggest and strongest and baddest, they sing from the most exposed perch around–which, in my experience, not every bird does.

    But when he isn’t announcing the value of his genetics to the entire world, he’s more careful. When I see him in this spruce, for example, usually he is deep inside it, where I can’t photograph him well. So when he sits briefly near the outside, amid freshly fallen snow, it’s a rare treat.

    Just as with the cardinal yesterday, I took this through the glass in my front door. Instead of letting the glass be part of the design, however, I zoomed in to get beyond the panels and the distortion at the edges of the glass.

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  7. Oh, yes, it is cold. -23 just a couple of feet from my front door. I know it is much colder further out and in other areas. 😦

    So grateful for my nice warm home and the pretty Christmas lights and decorations. As usual, these cold days mean bright sunshine, too, which is nice. Deceptive, however, when you look out as compared to when you walk out.

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  8. Pastor Larry Christenson died yesterday; he was the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church when I became a Christian back in the Dark Ages and with his colleague Paul Anderson, officiated at our wedding in the slightly lighter Dark Ages.

    This is a wonderful remembrance by the current pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church (whose parents were young people in the Dark Ages with us before they got married), and provides warm insight into a man and his church–but most especially, his God.

    My husband grew up at Trinity Lutheran Church and many, many children in his Sunday school classes have benefited from the fine teaching he got there.

    Well done, good and faithful servant, and thank you for all that you gave to the body of Christ.

    (And yes, I realize, some of you will be take umbrage at some of the teaching here. We don’t subscribe to everything, here, either.

    Just remember, you will know them by their fruits–and this church has produced a lot of good fruit. ).

    https://trinitypastor.blogspot.com/2017/12/larry-christenson-1928-2018.html

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  9. 😆 I was getting her ready to go to the Adult Center.
    It’s 33 degrees out there.
    I can’t find her white sweater anywhere. It is nowhere.
    So, I got her another sweater.
    She said, “It’s pink. I can’t wear that with this!”
    So? She went out without a sweater.
    Fortunately I had already warmed the car.

    No! she has always been like that.

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  11. Good morning. It’s -6 here at the moment, preparing to zoom up to +6 this afternoon. This is the strangest December, temperature-wise, we’ve had in a long time. Even for as cold as my region gets in winter, we rarely go below zero until mid- to late-January or later. Plus, earlier this month, we were breaking records because of how warm it was — temps in the sixties! That happens about once every twenty years. No one knows what to wear when Christmas shopping. You see people with shorts and winter coats; jeans and T-shirts; boots or various other footwear. No flip-flops, though. 😉

    Linda, probably the reason we have a Thanksgiving Eve service is because we have a large congregation — over a thousand members, and a sanctuary that seats about 500. Thanksgiving worship is well-attended, compared to, say, the Ascension service, which never fills the pews even with only one service. That’s especially true when Easter is late and Ascension doesn’t end up celebrated until June. Attendance drops in the summer months, and it seems people are already off other places by the time Memorial Day Weekend rolls around. Service attendance doesn’t pick back up again until Labor Day, when school is back in session.

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  13. Out here in balmy California, it’s 33 degrees and Mr. Fit has run out in his new running gear–warm wind pants and a UCLA sweatshirt (rather than that red and gold one he’s been wearing since last Christmas!)

    A funeral today for one of our elders; my daughter and I may go to the movies. I’m still going slow on recovery. Yesterday, we took a walk on a beautiful day, then spent the rest of it working a jigsaw puzzle, watching Monk episodes and doing six loads of laundry.

    I feel almost normal today, but am still lazy enough to skip Zumba! LOL

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  14. My condolences to those at your former church, Michelle. I’ll be writing an obituary story for th paper today.

    I’ve also been trying to check out what looked like a mini landslide off the cliffs into the ocean — captured in a photo by someone who was there — on Christmas Eve. But of course NO one in the city’s engineering office could be reached yesterday (or probably the rest of this week, for that matter). Hard week to do stories as most of the world now has this week off.

    I had another series of dreams about my house last night — the undiscovered second story and back rooms I’d never seen before, some of them empty and others filled with antiques. So fun.

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  15. Meanwhile, all our attention in Southern California has shifted to the upcoming Rose Parade. Hundreds of volunteers are working away in warehouses to get the floats ready for the big Jan. 1 display. There’s a small chance of rain for Monday, I believe. But it hardly ever rains on the Rose Parade.

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  16. This morning’s arrival of the gardeners next door was accompanied by a hilarious cartoon-dog display by Tess who came charging out of the bedroom, spinning in place by the time she hit the living room, her feet unable to grip the wood floor as she tried to shift into 4th gear.

    She finally made it out the doggie door to tell the gardeners through the fence to GO AWAY.

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  17. dj, our floors are laminate and our layout is completely open around the steps coming from upstairs. Our one cat gets to racing in circles and sliding on the floor as he makes the turns. He usually finishes it off by jumping up the frame around the bathroom door and has left scratch marks well above the light switch. It entertains us old people.

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  19. DJ, I have house dreams similar to yours about my grandparent’s old farm house. The dream involves a whole side area with a previously undiscovered attic. It is much more detailed than that. I think this is based on childhood desires of wanting to go up in their attic and never getting to do so. I also wanted to go down in the storm shelter that was out away from the house, but I was never allowed in there either. I did get to go in the barn and smokehouse. I remember when my uncles and dad tore down the old smokehouse.

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  22. It is a balmy 38 degrees here. Still great weather for boots. ❤ 👢👢👢 It was raining earlier when it was cooler so we had the possibility of sleet that would melt.

    Our cranberry/orange bread with fruit salad is almost gone. My recipe only has 3 tablespoons of sugar in the loaf, and it tends to be on the dry side. We love to drizzle juice from the fruit salad over the bread to sweeten and moisten it and have additional fruit salad with it. I suppose you could say that it’s our family take on Fruit Cake.

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  24. 37 degrees here and supposed to warm up almost to 60. strange weather. Nothing but a sprinkle this whole month, lots of sunshine and cold nights.
    Grands are still sleeping, but will probably wake up as I begin frying bacon.

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  25. Speaking of eschatology, this was from yesterday’s Tabletalk entry:

    “Good and godly Christians have differed over this matter, so it is difficult to hold any of these (millennial — a-, pre-, post-) views too strongly. Whatever view one holds, what we must affirm is that Christ is ruling and reigning over the cosmos now. For He has been exalted to God’s right hand and must reign until all things are put under His feet.” (1 Cor. 15:25).

    I will say that dispensationalism (not one of the basic millennial views referred to above) put the end times study under an onerous and complicated and very manmade template, however. Its hold over evangelicals is at last loosening, I think. I guess you can only (falsely) predict the world’s end based on complicated charts so often before it begins to fall on deaf ears and sends people back to the Scriptures.

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  27. I realized last night that I like these days between Christmas and New Year’s perhaps the best of all the holiday season. Whether a child off of school, an adult who gets a few days off of work, or (in my case) a freelancer who almost never has editing work this week of the year and who this week is snowed in with a lot of snow and very cold temperatures (we are below zero, too) . . . the days between Christmas and New Year’s usually allow some down time to read the new books one received for Christmas, cook casually after the fancy meals of the last month, and have nowhere special that one has to be.

    So I get to write a little, read a lot, and play with photos I’ve taken during the busier season for nature photography. And all of it without feeling guilty that I’m neglecting other duties, because I’m not. (This year I don’t even have a tree to take down and pack away. Yay!)

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  28. Cheryl (re: your comment to me last night) – Thank you. I do realize that, at this point, no one is expecting me to be moving on in any significant way. But I know it is something that will be not only expected, but necessary, eventually.

    Right now, my life is so much the same as it was when Hubby was alive, & yet so different at the same time. Although there are new responsibilities, I mostly continue to do the things I’ve always done – trying to keep the house clean & tidy, taking care of The Boy, etc., – so I can’t imagine what “moving on” will look like, other than in the emotional sense. But I want my heart to be open to whatever change God may bring my way, when the time comes.

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  29. Last night, Pauline mentioned the pastor who was convinced that the Rapture would happen before the end of that New Years Eve service, as it had been 32 years, a generation, since Israel became a nation again.

    But I’ve always heard that a generation is 40 years. That is why there was an idea in some Christian circles, & book with the claim, that the Rapture would happen in 1988.

    From what some of you have written, I am assuming that not everyone who believes there will be a Rapture & believes in a coming millennial reign, etc., is a Dispensationalist. So I guess there’s more to Dispensationalism than believing those things?

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  30. Linda, from yesterday (cats and Baptist services), last night I kept picturing a cat getting baptized by immersion… 😉

    If we tried that with our cat, he would bolt and spin and slide like your cat on your laminate floor, LOL.

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  31. Briefly, dispensationalists believe that the letters to the seven churches in Rev 2f represent different dispensations or phases of the church. They are convinced that we are in the last, that is, the lukewarm church in Laodicea. It is often used by non dispensationalists to describe “the lukewarm church”.

    My disagreement with dispensationalism is that it believes and teaches an imminent rapture, that is, don’t worry about tribulation. That is an easy thing to teach on the corner of Washington St. and 5th Ave. But try telling that to a man who is lashed to a pole to die while he sees his wife raped and killed and his children being taken to be raised Muslim. There is already much tribulation in the world..
    I believe in a pre-wrath rapture because Paul says clearly that the rapture will happen at the last trumpet. I reckon that to be the seventh trumpet in Revelation. .

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  32. It’s warmed up here some, now that it’s almost noon, up to 1 degree F. But I still think I’ll stay indoors today. I think I got all the necessary shopping done yesterday, including the prescriptions for my husband’s back pain (a muscle relaxant which the pharmacist said will make him drowsy and a steroid that will make him wired so it’s hard to sleep – but I think for the night the net effect was that he was able to sleep – he said he feels 500% better today). And I can just renew the library book that is due today, even though I already finished it.

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  33. It appears to be my birthday today. Husband has taken all four off to town for the day. They will probably eat dinner somewhere and watch a movie. Maybe pick up gloves for eleven year old, again.

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  35. As they say, ‘it’s complicated.” Here’s one article:

    https://carm.org/dispensationalism

    ______________________________________________________

    What is dispensationalism?
    by Matt Slick

    Dispensationalism summary
    Literal interpretation of the Bible
    God works via different arrangements in distinct periods of history
    Israel is the literal descendants of Abraham, not spiritual ones
    Israel is the heir to the promises made to Abraham about the seed being blessed
    Participation in the Abrahamic Covenant is “mainly” by physical birth in Jewish lineage
    Two distinct people groups: Israel and the Church
    Church began at Pentecost
    Salvation is by faith in accordance to the revelation given in a particular dispensation
    The Holy Spirit did not indwell people in all dispensations, only during the dispensation of the Church Age
    Christ will reign in the future 1000 year period which occurs after the rapture

    Dispensationalism is an approach to biblical interpretation which states that God uses different means of working with people (Israel and the Church) during different periods of history, usually seven chronologically successive periods. However, the dispensational division of history varies among its adherents from three periods, to four, seven, and eight dispensations. Seven is the most common.

    Innocence (Genesis 1 -3) – Adam and Eve before they sinned
    Conscience (Genesis 3-8) – First sin to the flood
    Civil Government (Genesis 9-11) – After the flood, government
    Promise (Genesis 12-Ex. 19) – Abraham to Moses, the Law is given
    Law (Exodus 20 – Acts 2:4) – Moses to the cross
    Grace (Acts 2:4 – Revelation 20:3) – Cross to the millennial kingdom
    Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20:4-6) – The rule of Christ on earth in the millennial kingdom
    Though dispensationalists share common opinions about interpreting scripture, there are different types of dispensationalist positions.

    Classical Dispensationalism
    God has different purposes at different times
    The Church is a parenthesis in history between the times of God dealing with Israel
    There will be a literal Kingdom in heaven and also a Kingdom on earth during the millennial period
    Modified Dispensationalism
    Two peoples of God: Israel and the Church
    Different roles
    Salvation is the same for both groups
    Church and Israel exist together during the millennium
    Progressive Dispensationalism
    Israel and the Church are both the people of God
    It relies more on covenantal interpretations
    Old Testament promises expanded to include the Church
    There are still distinctions between Israel and the Church
    Israel is still God’s chosen people with a plan from God
    Pre-trib rapture is generally held, but not necessary

    Dispensationalists, as a whole, seek to interpret the scripture as literally as possible. The positions hold that salvation has always been by faith, but it is manifested differently between Old and New Testaments (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 4:1-5; John 3:16). It accepts God’s covenants as vital parts of dispensational activity, but the primary unit of division is the dispensation (i.e., period of time). There are promises to Israel that are yet to be fulfilled. Israel will be completely restored and be prominent in the world as it carries out God’s promises. The Church may replace Israel to some extent, but not fully. The Church did not exist in O.T. times. Premillennial held by all dispensationalists. Pre-tribulation rapture held by almost all dispensationalists. …
    _________________________________________

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  36. We’re still below zero, and, like Pauline, have library books due today, also. Several are finished, but we’re staying put at home. They all renewed, fortunately.

    Here’s for all the cat lovers — let’s see if I can get this to work:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=whatever+i%27m+the+star+cat&rlz=1C1GGGE___US540US540&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=OuZkcmcWPsEGQM%253A%252CqmgPBO-tsD77_M%252C_&usg=__27LCFD-uETDMoy6I91wPGkBL6bA%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiopKbX4KrYAhUineAKHdebAU0Q9QEIKTAA#imgrc=bXB1qm3SUBskEM:

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  37. Donna, no.
    mid and post trib rapture is not within dispensationalism. Listen to this:

    I take my reasoning from I Thess. Where Paul says in I Thess 4:15 that the rapture wil occur when the trumpet sounds. He then clarifies himself in II Thess 2:3f. Then, in Rev. 11;15, everything seems to stop. Then the vails of wrath. God’s people have suffered much from Satan and his cohorts, but never at God’s hands. A brief summation of my position

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  38. Here’s another article:

    https://www.theopedia.com/dispensationalism

    ______________________________

    Dispensationalism is a theological system that teaches biblical history is best understood in light of a number of successive administrations of God’s dealings with mankind, which it calls “dispensations.” It maintains fundamental distinctions between God’s plans for national Israel and for the New Testament Church, and emphasizes prophecy of the end-times and a pre-tribulation rapture of the church prior to Christ’s Second Coming. Its beginnings are usually associated with the Plymouth Brethren movement in the UK and the teachings of John Nelson Darby. …
    _________________________________

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  41. More from the link above:

    _________________________________

    Crucial to the dispensationalist reading of biblical prophecy, drawn principally from Daniel and Revelation, but also, to some degree, from Ezekiel, is the assertion that the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount as a precursor to the Lord returning to restore the earthly Kingdom of Israel centered on Jerusalem. The dispensational movement was therefore fueled by the re-establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. It has grown in popularity particularly since 1967, coinciding with the Arab-Israeli Six Day War, and a few years later in 1970 with the publication of Hal Lindsey’s blockbuster book The Late Great Planet Earth. …

    … By way of clarification, it should be noted that while all dispensationalists are by definition premillennial in their eschatology, not all premillennialists are dispensational in their theology. Historic Premillennialism (e.g. in George Eldon Ladd) rejects pre-tribulationalism, dispensationalism’s radical tenets, and its uniquely Jewish view of the 1000 year millennium. Historic premillennialism may be traced back to some of the early church fathers where it was sometimes termed “chiliasm.” ///

    … Prior to dispensationalism, Covenant theology was the prominent Protestant view regarding redemptive history and is still the view of the Reformed churches. A relatively recent view, which is seen as a third alternative, especially among Calvinistic Baptists, is called New Covenant Theology. Outside of Protestantism, however, other Christian branches (e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, or Roman Catholicism) have not embraced any form of dispensationalism. …

    ______________________________________

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  42. I considered putting this on the prayer line, but will post it here so you can all shake your heads.

    Relatives wanting to see the Northern Lights are flying from Los Angeles tonight to Stockholm and thence to the Arctic Circle for five days. Young adults want to see reindeer.

    When I pointed out it was cheaper and easier simply to fly to Fairbanks, my closest relative shook his head with a sigh. It’s not dramatic or exotic enough for the young adults.

    He did buy electric socks and the company they’re going with provides arctic wear for the adventures.

    Which, btw, are all in the dark.

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  47. Michelle @ 1:11: Are those relatives screaming environmentalists? How are they helping the planet by flying to Stockholm instead of Fairbanks?

    Privilege has a cost.

    In other leftist theology news, Leftists Declare War on Thomas the Train:

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/12/leftists_declare_war_on_thomas_the_train.html

    Morality in the world of Thomas was making oneself useful to society, being a good friend, and keeping the railroad functioning smoothly. The human aspect of his trains is part of their appeal to children and the moral aspect of his stories was part of their appeal to the adults who read the stories to their children.

    Now left-wing critics label the Thomas the Train show “racist” because the diesel villain is black. They call it totalitarian because trains are supposed to do what the manager of the rails, Sir Topham Hat, tells them to do. They call it sexist because there are more male trains than female trains. (In 2013 the British Labour shadow Transportation Secretary actually called out Thomas for its lack of females.) When Thomas is awarded two female passenger cars to pull because of good behavior, the feminists call this sexist too. …

    Why do leftists distort and demonize Thomas stories? Leftists do not like the idea that punishment and discipline are a good thing because it implies that the fault lies with those who misbehave instead of with society. … In the leftist worldview society is the guilty party and therefore revolutionaries are heroes.

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  54. I was simply pointing out that my husband surprised me with a much enjoyed break. Poor choice of words. Generally, nobody needs to claim a birthday on here as somebody will rat them out.

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  55. So, it really was a Christmas present?

    I understood what she meant.

    In other news, we arrived at 1 o’clock– just in time for lunch for the 11 o’clock funeral.

    We just pretended we were the last people to greet the widow, but ouch, we felt awful.

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  58. Michelle – 6 Arrows has a good point. I, too, was thinking how privileged they sound, & being young, they probably do have some concern about the environment (not that we older folks shouldn’t care, too). I’m guessing they have money.

    After thinking that, though, I realize that even my family, which would probably be classified as lower middle class (some might even consider us poor), could be thought of as privileged compared to those worse off.

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  59. Pauline – Mumsee, Peter, & Kevin were all born in 1957, so they often compete to grab comment number 57. Jo tries for 49, her birth year, 6 Arrows likes to get 62, & every now & then I happen upon 61. Cheryl likes 88, but for the number itself; it is not her birth year. There is also sometimes a “race to 100”.

    Watch out for Mumsee, though. She claims 57 or 100 whenever she feels like it, on any number. 🙂

    Aren’t ya glad you came back here, for such deep conversation & intellectual stimulation? 😀

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  60. This is a much-delayed comment, but I just remembered that I meant to write this at the time, but forgot:

    Back before Christmas, there was some comment about an article about a woman (a professor, maybe?) who had written something about one of the popular Christmas songs (was it Jingle Bells?) having a racist element to it. A couple comments were about how ridiculous that was.

    But I noticed in the article itself, that the woman in question did not say that the song is racist, but that one reference in it had a racist meaning at the time it was written, but no longer had that racist connotation. Yet she kept having to defend herself from people claiming that she had said it was racist. (She merely had pointed it out from an interest in history.)

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  64. Jingle bells is racist? Huh??? I’m singing it in my head and can find any lyrics which could be construed as racist….perhaps it was a different Christmas song….now I have that song stuck in my head!! 🛎

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  65. Further thoughts on Michelle’s post (1:11):

    Why does anyone think they have to keep one-upping the last adventure so the young adults don’t have to put up with an experience that’s no longer “dramatic or exotic enough”? How is that a good idea? There’s far too much “I-just-want-my-kids-to-be-happy” parenting going on these days, IMO, and the mentality cuts through all economic classes.

    But the young adults need to take some responsibility, too. As I alluded to earlier, and Kizzie clearly points out, many of them are concerned about the environment, but do they take any time to study up on the environmental impact their flying all over their country and the world has? Are they okay with parroting, “There are too many people on this planet,” but not willing to curtail their pleasure-seeking that has far more environmental impact than the activities of the bigger-than-average families who can hardly afford to drive out of their region for most of their children’s growing-up years, much less fly more and more often to far-flung places for vacations?

    Now let me say that I agree with Kizzie that what might be considered lower-middle class or even below in our society often affords a much higher standard of living than many areas in the world. The question is, how do we use our relative wealth?

    There’s nothing wrong for those who can afford it to take a vacation now and then, but is there a heart of gratitude toward getting to experience, for example, a modest trip to see a beautiful natural wonder of God’s creation? Or does that (a small trip to a not-very-distant place) just not cut it anymore after a certain point?

    My parents have never had financial struggles in their married life, but they didn’t live what would be considered a life of privilege. We took only two family vacations the whole time I was growing up, and on the first one, my two youngest siblings stayed home with Grandma.

    Were we deprived? No.

    There’s a lot more I could say, but I’ll just end my rant here.

    I do hope they have safe travels, Michelle, and will pray to that end if I can get settled down enough to do so. :-/

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  66. More drama with Carol tonight. Either her meds aren’t working or the mental illness is just spiking for some reason. Calls, texts, people are talking about her, the staff is taking away her 1st Amendment rights, people are sabotaging her phone because she’s listening to Christian music or stations, she has to move out of there as soon as possible … I’m worn out.

    There. That’s my rant for the night.

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  70. On the “outdoing each other,” more and more I am bothered by the idea that a wedding has to be a fancy, extravagant affair. A wedding is actually worthy of being a good party and a fine celebration . . . but I see couples (or their parents) spending money they don’t have to have the very fanciest dress, lovely hall, etc.

    And what particularly grieves me is that I have heard many times recently of couples who are waiting to marry because of a particular wish that the wedding be as spectacular as their imagination of it . . . and while they wait for the ceremony that will unite them, they indulge in sexual sin because for all practical purposes they are “already married” in their minds.

    I think we have put way too much romance into “the perfect wedding.” Girls have decades to dream of it, and it must match their dreams. Yet the marriage itself is what is important, and if an expensive wedding takes them into debt, it is not a good start. If it takes them into sexual sin, it is not a good start. If preparation for the ceremony, and sexual sin, distracts them from getting to know each other and know whether they actually have any ground for marriage, then all that they have is fluff and romance.

    If a couple lives on a farm and has the means to kill a couple of cattle and grow extra produce and throw a lavish feast–the setting for a fancy feast in a rural economy–then wonderful. Have that feast. If a woman wants to spend years sewing the perfect wedding gown as she imagines the man who will someday come along, great. But couples who take into marriage the debts of at least one degree for each of them, a lavish wedding (and a destination honeymoon), a newish car or two, and then a mortgage are ill prepared to begin a family or to go through a few years of low income that usually come with building a career. And the chance that they will be willing–or able–to put aside her income to put their family first is quite slim. They may choose not to have children at all, and are quite likely to limit the number to one or at most two, and to have those children in a way deemed least inconvenient to their mother’s career.

    I don’t think that elopement is a good way to start a marriage–marriage involves an entire family, and the family should be present. And marriage is worth celebrating. But surely a young couple can say to family and friends, “Come, rejoice in our marriage” without spending tens of thousands of dollars on the wedding and a similar amount on the honeymoon.

    I’d love to see churches somehow encourage their young people into foregoing a catered meal and a fancy reception hall. If you must have a meal, invite your friends to celebrate with you by cooking it. Don’t spend $1,000 or $3,000 on a dress you will wear once and multiple thousands on a vacation that will distract you from the real purpose of a honeymoon. Dreams are lovely; dream all you wish. But don’t let the wedding distract you from the marriage.

    That would be my counsel, if anyone asked me, on the topic of whether it makes sense to spend more than your annual income on a single day of your life, or whether it makes sense for parents to spend tens of thousands of dollars in such a way. It’s the marriage, not the wedding, that’s important. Celebrate the marriage–but don’t let the celebration take precedence over what is being celebrated.

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  71. NancyJill, a physician comes on Fridays, I think the staff is aware of all this, though I probably am more privy to what’s going on with her at this point. I’ll send them an email tomorrow just to be sure they’re aware of it. She’s been ‘off’ for several weeks now.

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  72. Apologies for my rant up at 10:14. There are multiple behind-the-scenes backstories that went into that, but nothing having anything to do with anyone here. I’m sorry I said it — it didn’t need to be said at all. All that was needed was prayer, and now I have.

    DJ, I hope things get straightened out with Carol. That’s a long time to be “off,” especially when it continues to ramp up more and more, as it’s appearing to now.

    Cheryl, yes, I agree. But there are stubborn ones who don’t listen to stuff like that. My daughter is one. Her father and I have both said many similar things to her — she’s having none of it (except for the “already married” part of it — they’ve made their commitment in front of God by proposing and saying yes to the proposition, that’s the way it works, don’t you know). She’s been engaged, oops, “married” for a year already, and the ceremony is nine months from today.

    I have zero interest anymore in what she’s even planning for the day. I. just. don’t. care.

    If anyone who sees this wants to pray I’ll get over my bad attitude and maybe get some sleep tonight, I would appreciate that. And thank you.

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