75 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-2-18”

  1. 🙂 It took some doing to make that.
    Real neat!

    Once, many, man years ago, I supplied for a pastor who was going to be away on New Years day. I preached a sermon I called:
    “A New Year, or just another”..
    I forgot what text I used. But I could look it up. I keep all my records. Someday Chuck is going to have to throw out a lot of junk. .

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  6. Our son went out the first morning we were here and took this photo while on his walk. I saw it later in the day, but by then someone or something had smushed the turtle on the left side. We did not see it being made. It really is creative and would have been difficult to put together. Once when we went to Sea World we saw a much larger sand sculpture being created. I guess I could look up a video to see one done in fast motion. If I have time later I will see what I can find.

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  7. The holiday fun is over, all gone, packed away in the garage for another day. And it’s back to work for me again, but it is just a 4-day week. And just think, in less than 12 months it will be Christmas 🎄 again!

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  8. Those California folk don’t do the polar bear swim like those Lewiston Idaho folk. The Lewiston folk all stand on the dock, jump in, and swim as fast as they can to the shore and their running cars with the heaters on.

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  9. We still have the lovely tree and decorations up, which I like to leave up into January. Why is everyone in such a rush to put away the Christmas pretties, and then complain about how blah January is? Besides, January can’t be that blah – it has birthdays for Kim, Pauline, and me! (Anyone else’s birthday?)

    Unfortunately, the Christmas mess is still here, too, from The Boy’s presents (boxes and toys and instructions and parts and whatnot). That part I don’t like, but at least it’s all pushed off to the periphery of the room. Before she goes to work later, Nightingale is working on cleaning up and organizing his room, and then will get most of this stuff out of my living room.

    Have you noticed that I have stopped using the “&” for “and”? I don’t know when or why I started doing that, but it became such a habit that I didn’t even think twice about it. (I would be careful to use “and” in any important communication, though.) But lately, it’s been annoying me, which made me wonder if it annoyed anyone else. So I’ve decided to stop doing that. I may slip up some, though, so forgive me if I do. 🙂

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  11. I have no problem with &

    We dismantled Christmas on New Year’s Day when I was growing up, it was a full day’s work wrapping and packing all the delicate ornaments and other decorations. I’ve simplified it considerably (little trees for one) but I think by the time it’s a week after Christmas it becomes a reminder for me of work that needs to be done. I still have some poinsettias around and a red tablecloth, so that’s kind of nice, but the Nativity, lights and other decor I like to have down before Jan. 2.

    I think I’ll embark on getting some house painting estimates here soon. The dog park guy wants to do it but my concern is he’s a bit slow. I really want to be finished with painting, the final thing on the House list, by fall at the latest, sooner if possible. I know the companies can do it it in a week or so but they may be too high priced for me

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  13. About this time of year, I think of a Dennis the Menace cartoon I saw many years ago.
    Dennis and his dog were looking out the window at the snow, and Dennis said,
    “Winter sure does get long after Christmas”.

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  16. I can bring a paint brush with me when I head south in February. 🙂

    I took apart everything by yesterday, too, and the holidays are over except for Stargazer’s presence. I’ll ride around town with him today while he shops for things to take back to Seattle (and try not to grind my teeth because of all the work I have planned on this computer) because I don’t know when I’ll see him again.

    Riding around often gets conversations moving, I find. At least with that one.

    Oh, and we have five more seasons of Monk to watch, but those will have to be done at a much slower pace!

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  17. Kizzie, ampersands would annoy me if I found them in books and magazines and newspapers. But I have no problem with them in emails & texts & blogs & Facebook. I’ve never particularly noticed your use of them.

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  18. New Year’s Day was also the day for the Christmas tree to come down when I was growing up, and most years since I’ve been married. But recently we’ve started waiting until January 5th, the twelfth day of Christmas, or the first weekend after that.

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  19. “Besides, January can’t be that blah – it has birthdays for Kim, Pauline, and me! (Anyone else’s birthday?)”

    I only have Kim’s on the 6th. Perhaps you could share the other 2 so I don’t forget anyone?…………

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  21. I’m taking the tree down today. It’s hard work takin’ the 2 pieces apart, putting them back in the box, and carrying it all the way to the attic. But I’ll manage. 🙂

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  23. Thank you Karen. 🙂

    There’s some other I don’t have either, if anyone wants to chime in. No ages, just days.

    Ricky, Ann, RKessler, YapaMom, Kathleena, Roscuro….

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  25. Since y’all have encouraged me to continue to share my thoughts on my grieving process, I am going to inflict on you – I mean share with you – some things I wrote elsewhere yesterday. 🙂

    This is a comment I made on Mary’s (“mmacmurray”, I think, was her name on the WMB) Facebook post quoting Sinclair Ferguson: “God can be trusted even when he cannot be seen or understood.”

    I’ll tell ya, Mary, I am perplexed as to why my husband had to die when he did, but even so, I trust that God has a plan, and I do not doubt His love for me. It was a deliberate choice to keep trusting, and to not let myself grow angry and bitter at God, knowing that His ways are perfect.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t grieve, but God wouldn’t expect me not to. My grief is not a repudiation of my faith.

    And that goes along with something I wrote on Facebook the other day:

    I am one who hesitates to say, “God ‘gave’ me this scripture,” but I have to admit that this popped out to me as I read it. Right before reading it, I had been thinking sadly of what I have lost with the death of my beloved husband. Then I came across this, & as I said, it popped out at me:
    .
    “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea And a path through the mighty waters, ‘Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.’ ”
    (Isaiah 43:16, 18-19, NKJV)
    .
    Now, if this is indeed “for me” today, I don’t think God would be telling me to forget about Leon & our life together, but to not cling to those memories, & to walk into the rest of my life with hope that He is doing, & will do, a good work in my life.

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  26. This is from an email to a dear friend (Renee-in-Minnesota, as I refer to her here). (I’ve left in the real names.):

    I have no idea what God will bring into my life this year, but I aim to be faithful to fulfill what He has given me to do in the here and now, especially in taking care of my family. (But let’s face it – no one ever really does know what lies ahead, we just think we do. Leon’s unexpected death was quite an object lesson in that truth.)

    Although I have been up for a while, I have not yet turned over to the January 2018 calendar page in the kitchen. Symbolically, that will be like leaving Leon even further in the past, entering this new year without him, leaving him in 2017. Right now, emotionally/mentally, he isn’t quite “in my past”, and the thought of him being “in my past” is painful.

    Recently, I was thinking about a beloved cat, Peanut, who had died, that she had been gone for four years already. Then I thought, “And someday Leon will have been gone for four years.” The thought of his life and presence being years in the past is almost unfathomable right now.

    But I guess that this is a perfectly normal feeling. As a new widow, I want to linger here a while longer. And I feel that that is okay, that it is part of the grieving process, as long as I don’t build a permanent home here. I think my daughters probably have a similar feeling.

    In other matters, I have to admit that I am ready for Emily and Forrest to move themselves back upstairs. She will be buying a couch soon, from Ikea, and finally getting around to setting it up as an actual living room, so it will then be more comfortable for them to hang out in. (Yes, they have lived upstairs for over three years without an actual living room. Which is probably why they’ve spent so much time in ours. 🙂 )

    I have had mixed feelings about them being downstairs with me since a little after Leon’s death. On one hand, it has been wonderful to be surrounded by their liveliness, with us being a close family. There have been times when I have wished I could have some peace and quiet, but then I would remind myself of how blessed I am to have them, blessed that they even want to be with me.

    On the other hand, I do need more peace and quiet, and fewer messes and less clutter in my life. (Emily is wonderful and responsible in so many ways, but keeping things cleaned up is not one of them. :-/ ) Sometimes I have felt an underlying stress even while also enjoying their presence.

    One reason this has been such a change for me is that Leon had to go to bed very early (around 6:00), so I was used to my evenings being quiet. Now they’re not so quiet. This past week, with Forrest off from school, he’s been staying up later, which has lengthened that time of the “un-quiet” each evening. With school starting again tomorrow, this evening should be quieter.(Yay!)

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  27. Christmas isn’t over, since Epiphany is on the 6th, the twelfth day of Christmas. It is just that in the modern rat race, holidays are very limited and cut off short. Several historians have estimated that the holidays of the medieval era were more in number than the holidays of the modern period.

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  28. AJ – These are the ones I found on Facebook, but not everyone gives their birthdate:

    Ann – February 6

    RKessler – March 22

    Kathaleena – December 29

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  30. I love reading what you write, Kizzie! I think it could help anyone process grief in a positive way. I give credit and glory to God and your strong faith in Him for how you are going through this early season of widowhood. You are such a good example.

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  31. Roscuro – In many Spanish communities the Christmas season runs from mid December to January 6. Mexico even throws in El Día de los Innocentes on December 28. It’s their version of April Fool’s Day.

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  32. When people go back to work after the holidays, time available to enjoy the decorations can be minimal. For that reason, I understand people wanting to put away the decor early rather than later.

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  33. Thank you, Janice.

    I am keeping these comments and emails to re-read in a year or so, or to share with someone who might be helped by them. Recently, I have thought of compiling an edited version to print off and give to each one of my daughters next year. I don’t know if that would be appropriate for a Christmas gift, so maybe I’d give it to them before Christmas.

    What do you all think? Would that be appropriate for Christmas?

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  34. Lots of packing up around here. I leave to fly back across the Pacific this Sunday. Not sure that my suitcase will hold much more. Where to put every little piece of paper??

    My family was here on Saturday and Sunday and the kids were throwing my beanie babies, small stuffed animals, around. I found one behind the couch. Lots of little papers on the floor.

    And then I am asked to speak to a kinder class tomorrow. oh, don’t forget the thank you notes that need to be written!

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  36. I’m going to have to put my Christmas decorations away, because I’m returning to the city (classes begin on Friday) and I can’t very well leave them to collect dust until my next break. If I weren’t going back, however, they would stay up until Epiphany.

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  37. Morning! We are bone dry here but still a tad bit cold. Not like Kare’s cold but cold nonetheless. Husband quit watching that football game, which he declared was not a game at all, and went to bed. Depressing indeed 🏈.
    My quiet week is turning out to be not so quiet. How can I have meet ups with friends every day of the week for coffee and/or lunch? I think I need a job,to which my old boss has asked me back. I don’t see that happening. Onward and forward…if only I knew where that was leading…..

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  38. I like to leave up my Christmas until Eastern Orthodox Christmas because so many in our community are from Ukraine. (While not Ukrainian, my own family emigrated from Ukraine in the early 20th century). But sometimes, I just want it done 🙂

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  40. Yes, I know, epiphany — I try to leave a *little* something up, but just that. Frankly, as Janice said, if it doesn’t get done by the time I have my final day off, it drags on until the next weekend when I’m really quite over it, thank you. 🙂

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  48. Congratulations on the Curbed Cup win, DJ. I’m wondering, though, what communities are chosen to participate each year. I looked back at several years of results and I saw several repeat contestants, but some communities that should be real contenders that never appear. I’ll try not to be miffed that Reseda is never listed, but really how can Pasadena not be a competitor?

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  49. I’ve just deleted over 2000 emails from my work computer – that’s just from last year and so far, just from the school bookings. I’m so thankful for email. I cannot imagine handling all of that just over the phone or by snail mail!!

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  50. It would take a series of discussion’s to deal with Linda’s 10:22
    Lots of deep stuff here.
    I hate to discuss election. I often say, “I don’t believe in election, but the Bible is full of it.”
    But to believe in election requires you to look at a small baby and say” Bound for hell”. No, it doesn’t have a choice. You say he has the ability to choose, but if he is not chosen, he has no choice.
    Most Baptists believe in an “age of accountability” but I can’t find support for that in the Bible.

    Only one thing I know for sure.
    God is Love.

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  51. Mary and Tom went to China. They chose a little girl to bring to America. That little girl will mature as an American, probably go to Univ .S. Carolina on a legacy scholarship. She has all the benefits of a girl raised in an upper middleclass American home.
    There were thousands, nay-millions of little Chinese children who weren’t chosen.
    Sometimes, it’s hard to think about.

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  53. We have a choice but, as Martin Luther put it, our wills — minus God’s initial regeneration of the heart — are in bondage. We will always “choose” what we want to choose.

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  57. From the Presbyterian viewpoint: 1 Cor. 7:14

    https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/holy-children/

    Presbyterians believe the church distinguishes believers’ children from unbelievers’ children through baptism (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 74). Whether or not you believe infants should be baptized, we can all agree that God expects more from those raised in a Christian home than those who do not grow up under the gospel. “To whom much was given … much will be required” (Luke 12:48). Let us remind our children of this and call them to repent and believe the gospel.

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  58. And: … our Creator does view the children of believers as holy—set apart from this world (1 Cor. 7:14). Note that this does not automatically mean that covenant children are rescued from God’s wrath. In the same verse, Paul says unbelieving spouses are “made holy” by their believing spouses, but he is certainly not claiming that unbelieving spouses thereby get a free ticket into heaven by marrying Christians. This is the great Apostle of justification by faith alone, who is clear that salvation requires personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:15–16)…. The essential meaning of the term holy is “set apart,” and God can set apart anything for a specific use, even those things that are incapable of trusting in Him (Ex. 28:2; 29:34; Lev. 6:27; 19:24). So, when Paul speaks of covenant children as holy, he is simply telling us that they are separate from the world and not regarded in the same way as non-covenant children”

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  59. Lots of interesting discussion today: I have this thread open in two different tabs, typing in the reply box at the bottom in one of the tabs, and slowly scrolling my way down the other tab to reread the comments I’m responding to in this box. 🙂

    Polar Plunge: I’ve never done that, but I was pleased at the balmy 13° weather today — so lovely to be able to walk down to the mailbox and not have to bother with putting on a coat. 😉 (I did have on a sweater over a long-sleeved T-shirt.)

    Christmas take-down: I generally like to keep decorations up until at least Epiphany. In recent years, I haven’t felt like leaving them up much longer than that, but sometimes my husband likes to have the decorations (and tree — an artificial one) up longer, so then we keep things decorated more like until mid-January or so.

    Kizzie and &: 😉 I didn’t notice that you’d stopped using the ampersand, but, for me, it did stand out when you did use it. It wasn’t annoying, but perhaps a little distracting. Your use of the word “and,” I suppose, seems more natural to me (thus my not noticing when you switched from the ampersand to the actual word), and helps me stay with your train of thought better.

    But that’s just me. It doesn’t take much to get a little off-track when I see a symbol inserted in the middle of print. That’s just the way my brain works — if I suddenly encounter something unexpected, whether in print or another way, I momentarily hone in on that and forget for a bit what I was reading or hearing! LOL.

    (Kind of funny, too, when it happens while listening to a good musical performance, and then there’s a sudden mistake. Watch my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. But I digress.) 😛

    Anyway . . . I do agree with Linda when she refers to your writing as “clear, eloquent, intelligent, and grammatically correct.” Very true, and in the big picture, the “&” doesn’t negate any of those qualities. Write in whatever manner you wish. It’s all good. 🙂

    Baptism: [Too many thoughts to put into this already fairly lengthy comment. See my next post.]

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  60. As a Lutheran, we practice infant baptism. All of my children were baptized as babies — all within the first month of life.

    I didn’t examine the practice of infant baptism until my youngest sister got married and joined a non-denominational church where she was re-baptized (by immersion, rather than with sprinkling like when she was a baby) because, in her words, that was a requirement for church membership. I’m not sure if the immersion part was the requirement, or the believer baptism idea was. Her infant baptism, for whatever reason, was not recognized.

    All but one of my children have been born since then, but my husband and I have never changed our position on infant baptism. I, however, have learned more about the viewpoints of other Christians who believe in believer’s baptism, and who hold other positions than the Lutheran theology I grew up with and continue in to this day. So I find discussions like these interesting, and a good opportunity to look into Scripture to see what the Word says, and not simply take my church’s stance on any position as the be-all and end-all of what to believe. (And I appreciate that everyone here, as far as I can tell, also looks to Scripture as the Bereans did, to make sure what we are hearing from the pulpit aligns with the Word. It’s an encouragement to be surrounded by many, both in my own church, and here online, who dig deeper into the Bible.)

    Anyway . . . baptism.

    I agree with Chas at 4:55 that the Bible doesn’t say anything about “an age of accountability,” as some believe.

    Examples from personal experience don’t trump Scripture, so I don’t intend this anecdote to be proof of anything, but for those who believe in an age of accountability that is well into childhood, or perhaps in adolescence, or even adulthood, I have to wonder how even a child as young as a toddler would be considered unaccountable, With my own 1st Arrow, for example, an incident when he was only a year old stands out in my mind.

    I walked around a corner into the living room and saw him standing in front of a bookcase, reaching with both hands into the bookcase to do what he had done on more than one previous occasion: pull a whole bunch of books off the shelf at once and immediately abandon them on the floor to go find some other place to go and make a mess.

    He froze, knowing that what he was about to do was wrong, and had a look in his eye, daring me to shake my head and say “No.”

    He understood what would be right and what would be wrong, and what his mother, the authoritative person standing in front of him would think if he went ahead and did that which was in his mind to do.

    How can those who say a child isn’t accountable before God before a certain (much more advanced) age or level of awareness explain a toddler’s willfulness to do that which he knows is wrong as something God doesn’t consider culpability?

    I guess my question is, how would one figure out an “age of accountability”?

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  66. I’ve been busy typing another baptism post in another tab, but started getting riled up about a couple memories from the past, so thought I’d take a break and see what’s going on on the blog in the meanwhile, instead of erasing the whole long post.

    Does anybody ever do that — type something, maybe something really long, and then say, “No, I don’t want to say that,” and then erase it all?

    Excuse all these posts in a row from me.

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  68. There have been some things that have come up in my experience in the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church) regarding baptism that I have not necessarily fully believed were thought of correctly, however.

    When First Arrow was born (on a Sunday night), one of our then-pastors came to visit the next day and wanted to get son’s baptism set up for that coming Sunday. However, my mother, a new grandmother and a Christian, was going to be at a pro-life rally that coming weekend in Washington, D.C. I knew she would want to be present for the baptism of her first grandchild, so we wanted to delay baptism to the Sunday when son would be two weeks old, after his grandmother would be back home.

    The pastor was clearly very concerned about that, that we need to get him baptized as soon as possible. (I’m surprised now he didn’t suggest a baptism at the hospital or on one of the days between son’s birth and her trip out east.)

    I don’t remember all he said, but we knew he wasn’t happy that we were delaying the baptism by one week.

    I didn’t think about it a lot at the time, but years later I wondered if he believed our baby would go to hell if he died in the interim (between his birth and baptism scheduled for when he was two weeks old).

    My thoughts are, does an unbaptized newborn baby who dies go to hell? Will those babies hear, “Go away from me, I never knew you,” as unbelievers will? “You’re not saved because nobody got you baptized on time”?

    To me, it seems there is a works-based mindset there — that some earthly person (or persons — in this case, my husband and me), through our action or non-action (getting our baby baptized, or not, in a timely manner), would determine our baby’s eternal destiny if he didn’t survive until baptism.

    That’s not consistent with what the Bible says. Salvation is through Christ, and no human (in-)action can affect another human’s salvation.

    Also, there was something else, not about that incident, but involving something I read in a synod publication, that was disturbing and, I believe, not biblical.

    Someone wrote in to the magazine that she had had a miscarriage. She wanted to know, was her baby in heaven?

    The writer who answered her question wrote a long piece that said, in a nutshell, we don’t know, but God is sovereign, and you need to put your trust in Him, and not worry about where your baby is spending eternity.

    My heart broke for that mother, and reading that heartless response angered me something terrible.

    Why was that mother not given hope from Scripture? We are told in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. If our Lord, in His sovereignty, chooses an individual’s span of days to end before birth, is the first half of that verse negated? Is He suddenly unwilling (or unable) to save when it comes to those who don’t emerge from the womb alive?

    Of course not.

    The Bible is clear that we are sinful from the time we were conceived. But God’s ability and willingness to save are not limited by earthly circumstances.

    For the record, the above two examples I gave are not “official” pronouncements from our synod. They were just a couple examples of thinking that I believe was misguided. And which I think underscores the importance of being in the Word and holding everything up to the light of Scripture. Individuals can get things wrong. (And I am not immune.)

    Thankful for the Spirit’s working in all of us believers.

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  69. Two questions come to mind every time I read something on infant baptism (I read Linda’s link):
    1) If baptism is a means of salvation, how is that not a salvation by works?
    2) Doesn’t the idea of the children of believers being considered holy contradict the doctrine of original sin and total depravity?

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  70. Chas, I think the books which 1st Arrow was about to yank off the bookshelf. They’re all put back now. 😉

    Speaking of books, I don’t think this has ever happened to me (or at least not for a very long time), but I have finished a different book each day for the last three days.

    December 31 I told you I finished Michelle’s book. The next day, yesterday, I finished the church library book I checked out a couple weeks ago. Then last night I started reading a public library book I’ve had for a week or two, and finished it this afternoon! It’s been a long time since I’ve read a whole book in less than 24 hours.

    That book is entitled Sensing the Rhythm: Finding my voice in a world without sound. A powerful true story of a talented singer, Mandy Harvey, who went deaf her freshman year of college as a vocal music major. She and Mark Atteberry wrote the book, and I could hardly put it down to go to bed last night. After waking this morning, doing my Bible reading and devotion, and some household things, I picked the book back up and finished this afternoon.

    My heart is full of many thoughts gleaned from this book, and Michelle’s and the church library book, too. So many things to ponder from all those readings, but I am glad for having last week and this week off from the usual school and piano routine, so I can snuggle in a blanket and do a lot of reading on profound topics that I don’t often have time for.

    I am enjoying the blessing of good reads.

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  71. I Corinthians 7:14 appears to be simply a reassurance that marriage between a believer and unbeliever is a real marriage and that the children conceived in such a marriage are legitimate. In other words, Paul was reassuring believers that the act of sexual intercourse with their unbelieving spouse was holy in the eyes of God and not an act of fornication. If the verse is taken to mean that the believer’s children are saved by their parents’ faith, then the verse would also indicate that the unbelieving spouse is also saved by the believing spouse, since the noun ‘holy’ and the verb ‘sanctified’ are from the same root. That cannot be correct. Since Paul is writing about marriage and the legitimacy of sexual relations within marriage in the verse’s context, it is logical to conclude that Paul is reassuring believers who are married to unbelievers (a not uncommon scenario among new converts) that they are not sinning in having marital relations.

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  72. As for election, I believe, and many of my family and acquaintances agree with me in this, including Pastor A, that we are chosen of God and called by the Holy Spirit before we respond in faith. John the Baptist, when he spoke of Christ coming, said that Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. I and my fellow Baptists believe that we only respond in faith by the Holy Spirit’s previous work in us, and that the physical baptism is merely an outward confession of the spiritual baptism which has already taken place. Historically, Baptists were not Arminian, as the London Baptist confession of 1689 makes quite clear:

    Chapter 10: Of Effectual Calling
    Paragraph 1. Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving to them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.
    Paragraph 2. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature, being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit; he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.
    [Link: http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/baptist_1689.html%5D

    The age of accountability is not something any of my mentors have ever emphasized. I knew a child who made a profession of faith at about age 2 and a half. I myself made a profession at age five. To set an age of accountability would be to limit when a child could make a profession. It is something most of us just leave in the Lord’s hands.

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  73. It’s 11:00 p.m., I live out in the country away from street lights, but I look out my kitchen window and see everything in my backyard, including the shadows of the trees. Between a nearly full moon and a yard full of snow, and the eye’s ability to make the most of what light there is, if an animal walked across my yard tonight as I stood at the window, I would be able to identify it.

    My husband is asleep on the couch and it undoubtedly is below zero out there, two things strong enough to keep me inside. But it is lovely from inside, and part of me wants to go out and be in it.

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  74. The first time I ever went running at night was a night like this — bright moon, with snow on the ground (and dry pavement on the rural roads I took in the area in which I was living — I was a teenager still in my childhood home).

    I loved the chill in the air (though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t below zero, and probably not as cold as the 15° we’ve got right now, either), and the calm of country roads at 9:00 or 10:00 at night, or whatever time it was that first time.

    God provides so much beauty, in sometimes unexpected ways.

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  75. I am awake early and will probably return to sleep. I have found peace and joy reading all the comments here. Thanks to all who join in.

    Doing the believers baptism felt right to me. I was sprinkled at age twelve and remembered thinking I was suppose to feel like a different person when that happened, but I felt no change. It was not a rebellion. I was just not saved. An infant is not able to have those realizations. They are not saved by baptism. They are saved by the grace of God. I remember when David lost his and Bathsheba’s infant baby and took consolation that he would one day see it again. That note in the Bible has reassured me on the question about babies who die going to to heaven.

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