67 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 11-30-18”

  1. Kare, I am glad you stopped to share that photo with us. amazing.
    morning, Chas.
    A rainy hour of the afternoon.
    tonight is the high school choir concert. They are college quality, it should be good.

    Liked by 3 people

  3. You’re up mighty early Peter.
    Happy Birthday Aj’s Cheryl!
    Good evening Jo
    And good morning everyone else.
    It’s 44 degrees outside. That was the high a couple of days ago.
    Off to meet the day.

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  5. That’s the way I was when I was working Peter. Up at 5:20, out the door and on the beltway by 6:00. If you are ten minutes later on the beltway, you are twenty minutes later getting there.

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  7. Happy Birthday to Mrs. AJ. 🙂 You share a birthday with one of my nieces, and your husband shares a birthday with two of my daughters.

    Chas, I answered you at the end of yesterday’s thread. Read at your own risk — it is probably worse than my post at 1:12 a.m., ha ha. I have more brain power in the p.m. than the a.m. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Yesterday I got a phone call just as I was about to head out the door to go practice at the concert venue. There was a first name and last name on the caller ID that I did not recognize, and the area code of the caller wasn’t familiar, either. But I picked up anyway.

    Turns out it was someone from that pro-life organization I’d recently written to about the fundraising phone call with the high-pressure tactics that I’d gotten earlier this month.

    The caller yesterday sounded like a very nice gentleman, and when he identified with which organization he was calling, I really was curious what he would have to say. I was almost positive it wasn’t a fundraising call, but a specific response to my letter, but I really needed to get out the door soon, so I told him that I wasn’t able to talk right then, as I was heading out.

    (The thought crossed my mind that maybe he thought I was lying, that instead I might be making an excuse to get the phone call done before it started, but I knew God knew the truth.) The man then said thank you for my past support and wished me a good day.

    I really wish I would have said that I’d like to speak more with him, but my mind was on the clock, the car running outside, the snow-covered roads from the previous night’s snow, the need to take my time to get to the venue at my appointed practice time in between others’, etc.

    I don’t know if that’s all I’ll hear from the pro-life organization as a follow-up to my letter, but the man (who I identified himself by first and last name — something fundraisers don’t do) was very polite.

    In any case, I’m glad I wrote the letter. It’s been a few weeks, and I wondered if I would get a response.

    Thanks to those of you who prayed about that communication.

    Liked by 3 people

  10. I have a feeling the concert is going to get canceled tomorrow. The prediction is for 100% chance of precipitation tomorrow during the morning and afternoon hours — rain and snow and possibly freezing rain — and a 90% chance of more yucky stuff in the evening. (Possible freezing rain, snow/sleet, higher-than-usual wind.) I don’t think I would want to go out in it, anyway, even if the concert isn’t canceled. My husband isn’t afraid of driving in anything, but he never goes to my concerts, anyway, so it’s not likely he would want to drive me there, and I can’t imagine we performers would have much of any audience. The town where the venue is is even more rural than my town, and a lot of roads in the area would likely be poor ones on which to travel in weather like that.

    Hope we can find a time to reschedule, as I don’t think the weather forecasters will be way off on this one.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Wow to Kare on that header!

    The weather is considerably warmer here now. I am thankful for that, but I think it may storm some tomorrow.

    Does anyone else here do Amazon Smile where a part of your purchase dollars goes to a charity of your choice? It can add up, especially since I order a lot of office supplies through Amazon. I designate Christian Library International as my charity to benefit.

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  15. Some people from Boise might be moving to the Midwest. Our most recent call for a third pastor was extended to a pastor currently serving in Boise. I don’t know if he will accept or return the call, but if the former, than he and his family will be heading here.

    The blues in your picture, Kare, are stunning. I love the shading.

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  16. It seems the world meets in Boise.

    Happy birthday Cheryl!

    I’m off to the Christmas crafts festival in Pomona today, my friend is driving but I need to be at her place by 10.

    Our rain finally quit late last night, but how glorious it all was to us who live in this parched land. They have put rain on our forecast again for next Wednesday and Thursday. But I do hope it dries out enough in between for me to stain my wooden gate (and maybe even the back fence if I work fast?).

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  17. Carol, who remains in the rehab, got paid yesterday and right away used her smart phone to order a $30 meal on the GrubHub(?) app that was delivered to her. I don’t know what all she got, but it included a milk shake and a coke and a very, very large hamburger. Probably more. She said she regretted it later with all the indigestion it gave her and how much it cost.

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  20. I’m trying not to find trouble where there is none, but when I run my heater (which is located under the house with all the duct work coming up through the floor vents) there’s a vibration in one part of the floor. When I stand there it stops.

    OK self, it’s nothing, it’s nothing, it’s nothing. Carry on. It’s nothing. …

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  21. I should check into Amazon Smile. I do order frequently from Amazon as opposed to going out to shop even for things such as household goods and other necessities, ranging from floor cleaner to pet supplies including food and cat litter. It’s easier, provides more choice and is almost always cheaper.

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  24. My husband has long used Amazon Smile to donate to Westminster California (the seminary where Michael Horton, among others, teaches), and since we married I have added that as well.

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  26. I’ve been using Amazon Smile for years. We used to support the local Birthright, but Amazon sent us an email saying that group wasn’t taking the donations. So we switched to HeartCry Missionary Society.

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  28. My first response to that article about drinking is that a lot of it is true, but there are multiple straw men or irrelevancies in it:

    (1) I don’t think it’s true that we always talk about either abstaining or indulging, and never about the amounts we drink. My husband and I (both of whom moved from the “abstaining” category in the last 10 to 15 years) say that we drink in moderation, and I personally have been in many such discussions. “In moderation” means we have one drink (which is less than an official “drink,” BTW) with a meal a few times a week when we have a bottle of wine in the fridge, and we can go weeks or months without having a bottle in the fridge. On average we probably drink one bottle a month. But any biblically informed discussion of alcohol is probably going to bring up the “moderation” argument. People from the “teetotal” side are probably less likely to hear it. I agree this must be part of the conversation–but in my experience it already is.

    (2) “Average” doesn’t actually tell us much. Average consumptions moving up does not tell us whether typical consumptions have moved up. Maybe it means that alcoholics are drinking more, not that typical wine-with-a-meal drinkers are.

    (3) The discussion about teenage drinking is meaningless. In America we have a legal minimum age for drinking. In countries where wine is regularly served with meals, and in countries where teenagers are considered to be adults, teen drinking won’t be seen the same way as it is in America. And there is a big difference in a 17-year-old having three ounces with a meal with her parents and teens binge drinking at a party with only teenagers (and with drugs and sex on the side, and teens driving drunk afterward). Putting them all under “teen drinking” makes as much sense as putting all teen pregnancy together (and forgetting that a 19-year-old married woman is still technically a teenager).

    (4) The percentage of deaths attributed to alcohol is highly suspect. Statistics can be used to say almost anything. Since nowhere near one in five people are problem drinkers, and since accidents show a pretty low percentage of the numbers who died of drinking-related causes, my “bad statistics” detector is in overdrive. It also is in overdrive from personal experience in a different matter. I know what twisting is done to make smoking-related deaths impossibly high. Two members of my extended family would have been considered to have died of smoking-related deaths, even though one had never smoked at all (!) and the other was past 80 (and hadn’t smoked in several years). The doctor who was in the hospital when my brother-in-law was brought in dead noted on his medical records that he was a smoker with a past history of heart problems, neither of which was true, but he either was an anti-smoking crusader and that fit his narrative or he assumed that a man in his mid-40s dying of heart issues must be a smoker. My stepfather quit smoking when he developed emphysema, so it is likely smoking shortened his life. However, it’s really an exaggeration if a man who used to smoke dies in his eighties of a heart attack and it’s considered a “smoking-related death.” I don’t trust these statisics, and I don’t think it’s responsible to use them without some disclaimer. I’m not blaming the writer, because unfortunately most writers don’t have the necessary skepticism about statistics, but this does tend to undermine the entire piece.

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  30. I use Amazon Smile. Kare the photo looks COLD.
    Happy Birthday, Cheryl.
    BG and I went out to dinner last night. We had a great conversation. She is supposed to come over today and do some things for me and has requested Chicken Piccata for dinner.
    Last night Maddie spent the night so when BG and I got home Grandpa was bathing her, I told him to go eat his dinner and BG and I finished Maddie’s bath time. BG got her house of the tub and had me take a picture of the two of them.
    BG is seeing a counselor and thinks she will stay in it longer. She thinks it is helping her. I think it is too. She told me she feels guilty because I had to pay for it and that she would pay me back one day. I told her the only pay back I wanted was for her to get better. If she does that it will be money well spent.

    Liked by 6 people

  31. WHOOPS–SORRY–I looked at the piece again, and he says one in twenty, or 5 percent. I’m still a skeptic of statistics, but it’s a very different statistic. I actually wrote three in the post above, but then I went back and changed it to “several” and added a fourth. I should have glanced at the piece again before I did.

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  32. The alcohol story must also be wrong because when I was in Bible study in Italy, an elderly Italian lady told me they don’t have any alcohol problems because their children learn to drink as children. Disregard the vomit on the sidewalks every morning, the loud belligerent yelling at night, the fights, the bullet holes….

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  35. The twin sisters who wrote this song grew up in Oxford, Ms. One of their childhood memories involves William Faulkner and his horse and wagon. In the video you will see a photo of them with Josephine who had a tremendous influence on their lives. I know all of this because Margaret King is the mother of a good friend and the grandmother of my god daughter.

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  36. I do know a family where the husband is a wine enthusiast. They have a wine cellar in their home and have some very expensive wines. They allowed their children to have a nice glass of wine for special dinners. Their daughter came home from college and complained about the gross wine her friends were drinking and if she couldn’t afford wine that tasted good she just wouldn’t drink.

    Liked by 4 people

  38. On the other hand, husband has provided well for his children. Some of the now growns or nearly so say that they have expensive tastes so they go out and buy, on credit. Which they cannot pay off. Digging themselves deeper and deeper holes.

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  41. Re alcohol use: All of God’s good gifts can be misused. What percentage of harm comes from misuse of sex? Add together all the various ways it can be misused (from fornication to rape) and all the ways it can cause harm (from destroyed marriages to babies born to ten-year-olds who were impregnated by their mothers’ boyfriends to sexually transmitted diseases, to jealousy and murder–and one can add abortion and the problems within single-parent cultures). The problems caused by sex are probably even greater than the problems caused by alcohol.

    Then there is misuse of food, of sleep, of marriage, of children, definitely of money, of authority, of natural resource, of our talents.

    The problem is not in those who use it as a good gift from God, nor is the solution necessarily found in abstaining. It is an acceptable life option to stay single and abstain from sex, and it is an acceptable life option to abstain from alcohol (or chocolate or meat). What is not an acceptable option is to treat abstaining from any of these as better or more godly options than rejoicing in God’s good gift. The Roman Catholic church has found out that vows of abstinence from sex don’t cure sin problems. Treating God’s good gifts as dirty, things to be accepted only with an adequate amount of guilt if at all, is not the right answer. Teaching our proper relationship to His good gifts seems better to me.

    My drinking alcohol, and talking about its proper use being acceptance of a good gift from God no more gives me some share of the “blame” for deaths from DUI than I as a married woman share blame for an adulterous spouse who conceives a child outside the marriage. I should not avoid having children because some parents beat their kids. My using money does not give me any share of the blame for people who go heavily into debt on frivolous purchases, and so on. We can and should talk about proper use of all of these issues–but the sin is in the misuse of the gifts, not the gifts themselves.

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  42. I believe Joe Carter was not condemning either side, simply suggesting we might benefit from a discussion. No, we can not cure or save everybody, nor are we to be blamed for what others do. But do we have a responsibility to our fellow believers to look at this problem and come up with some useful ideas for how to help each other and help the youth to make better decisions? May a keg was fine for great grandpa but a gallon might be more fitting with today’s alcohol content.

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  43. It is very easy to say. “that is his problem, not mine” but is that the best answer in light of God telling us to love our neighbor?

    “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. ” 1 Cor 10: 23, 24

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  44. In my personal experience, I have known of much more drunkenness than of moderation within the realm of people I knew in college and while in the business world. Has anyone been in a professional gathering where moonshine is passed around? I have been but I used wisdom while having a few legal drinks to not go there. I know of many times when people drank for the purpose of getting drunk. Maybe because of being in a major city in the South? I don’t know. The person I dated for ten years and at one point thought I would marry became a bartender while in college. His brother-in-law owned a liquor store. Having these connections were not in my plans. I helped my “boyfriend” get his impounded car out after he had an accident while under the influence. One of my best friends had to attend Al-Anon meetings because her husband had a problem. Art and I were hit from behind by a drunk driver. There are so many more things of a negative nature I could say. But I do not mind if those who don’t have a history of negative happenings with alcohol enjoy a bottle once in awhile. I have some girlfriends who bought a bottle of wine we had a trip. I opened the bottle and poured it for them, but I had no desire to have any. I know what the Bible says about drinking is to not get drunk. A certain portion of people can’t stop once they start. I am glad I was never in that group. I just don’t like to be around it now that I have a choice most of the time. It has lost any appeal. It was like a stage I went through and grew out of. Blessings on you who can handle your liquor and not be affected in a negative manner. And blessings on all who choose to abstain for whatever reason. May we neither waste time in being judgemental about each other’s choices but be thankful that God gave us wisdom to choose best for ourselves. Remembering my cousin who committed suicide last Dec. who used alcohol to treat her depression. Alcohol, as a drug, is a depressant.

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  45. I am an abstainer due to observed alcohol abuse in my grandfather and recognition of the potential in me. My husband and children are not. My bio children all seem to have safely made it through that age and are able to be moderate. Not so the adopted children. They get smashingly drunk to the point of idiocy, or so I am told. They are repeating the errors of their bio parents. It is sad to see. Some may be learning from it, others, I believe, are alcoholics. Would that I could have helped them.

    Same with ecigarettes. Brought out to help the addicted wean off cigarettes but promoted to children with their fruity tastes. Now we have another generation of nicotine addicts. At least three of my adopted growns are using that and they will soon realize (or have) that cigarettes are cheaper and easier. Not what I wanted for them. They do get to make their own decisions just as they will with other drugs. But the more we can shed light on the truth, I think, the better.

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  46. Speaking of addiction, I heard yesterday that a ring of postal carriers in Atlanta have been distributing “snow” as well as the mail from their route trucks. So glad they got caught.

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  47. Mumsee, absolutely not it is not “his problem, not mine” any more than abused children are “someone else’s problem.” My point is that a person who doesn’t drink cannot fairly lump “all drinkers” into one big group and say that all of us have a problem any more than he can lump all sexually active people (including those who are in monogamous marriages) into one big group.

    I too have been hit by a drunk driver, though the results were a totalled car and not (as far as I know) damage to myself. I despise our culture’s tolerance of drunk driving. I despise our culture’s tolerance of college orgies.

    But we would never say that because some people gamble or enter into heavy debt, we should get rid of money; because some people have casual sex, even marriage is suspect; or because some people drive erratically, we should outlaw cars.

    I didn’t grow up in a drinking family, nor did I attend a college that allowed (let alone celebrated) use of alcohol. I have worked in secular and in Christian settings, but never in a culture where people went out drinking together after work. I have attended parties that had alcohol; the first time I was a teenager and a teetotaler (I went with an older friend because her husband wanted to go and I was staying with them), so I have no idea if my great discomfort with the drinking and the smoking meant that any of it was inappropriate or was just my own first exposure to it. But the events I have attended with fellow Christians that included alcohol, it was a very minor part of the event. People sipped it and chatted or they had a glass at midnight. I have been blessed to have seen little of the ugly side of drinking.

    I have, however, seen the ugly side of teetotaling. I have heard preachers tell ridiculous stories of how alcohol is so dangerous that a man who has had just one drink may molest his own daughter or may crash a school bus. I have a relative who has young children sign pledges never to drink, smoke, or use drugs–and I don’t think anyone has a right to have another family’s ten-year-old, who likely is not even a believer, sign a vow never to do something that Scripture does not forbid. So yes, I detest drunk driving–but I also detest Christians associating teetotaling with the Gospel, equating casual drinking with sin and presenting that image to unbelievers.

    I probably agree with Joe’s article more than I disagree. But I do think that probably any of us who are going to write and publish on the subject should probably run it by an editor with a different perspective since there are so many blind spots on this issue, and a lot of “mythology” among Christian teetotalers.

    Liked by 1 person

  49. It seems both sides can get quite defensive. I think that was kind of the point of the article, lay aside the preconceived ideas and self protection and what can we do to help our brothers and sisters who are struggling? Or to help them avoid the pitfall.

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  50. I guess I can’t really relate to the term “teetotaler.” I once was a person who drank socially, and enough on occasion to throw up, but now I do not drink. I do not think of myself as a teetotaler, I guess, because I use to drink.

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  51. Am I a “teetotaler” and just didn’t know I fit in that category? I will take a tiny sip of wine for communion if that is all that is offered. I will use red wine salad dressing. Ha! I know! I am a split personality 😃😥

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  53. My Amazon Smile goes to the Hendersonville Lions. They are a foundation.
    I used to drink beer with my buddies in the AF I don’t drink any alcoholic beverage now. I don’t care if you do if you don’t drive or abuse someone.

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  54. Kizzie, your FB discussion of missionaries and cultures came up on my news feed today, and I decided to throw in a comment of my own. I’m not specifically aiming it at YA, but for perspective for anyone else who happens to be reading. Feel free to delete it if you don’t want it there.

    Liked by 2 people

  57. Alcoholism in the family, non-sleeping, diabetes potential and calories. I rarely have more than the occasional flute of champagne these days. I don’t like it enough to bother with the above.

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  59. Cheryl – I agree that there were flaws in the article, such as not mentioning those who use moderation. I wonder if what he wrote about how people are using more of everything these days makes him think that not many people can use alcohol in moderation these days.

    Something I noticed recently – the wine glasses that they sell now are much bigger than those that we got when we first married, back in 1986.

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  60. We have too much alcoholism on both sides of our family. Nightingale and I have talked about the need for her to be careful about how much she drinks, and why she drinks, because of that family history. (For the record, she is not a big drinker, and does not drink to get drunk, but enjoys some wine or some other kinds of drinks, such as Mimosas or Margaritias, occasionally.)

    She told me that she has found that alcohol magnifies whatever mood she is in, so she will not drink if she is in a negative mood. She will not try to use alcohol to cheer herself up, because it will just make things worse. I am glad she is self-aware enough to see that.

    Not sure what Chickadee’s drinking habits are.

    I rarely imbibe, but don’t have anything against it (in moderation, of course).

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  61. There is an epidemic of wine drinking in women. More women feel the pressure to contribute to the household. They are stressed juggling everything and drinking wine is something they can do at home or a girls night out. It is almost laughed about.
    Knowing my alcoholic history I took a good look at that statistic and re evaluated how I felt about it.
    Nothing is worth the embarrassment of becoming an alcoholic

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  62. I was never in with the wine drinking crowd. It was always pitchers of beer or mixed drinks. Sometimes it was pitchers of sangria with Mexican food so I guess that was a wine punch? It was always with a group, and not what would have been my choice, but I learned to drink to be included with friends or as a part of going out to a nice restaurants. I was thankful that when I married and later had Wesley that I was no longer in those groups that expected everyone to be drinking. It felt like freedom in a sense.

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  63. I think Kim is right, I’ve noticed so many wine “joke” FB posts & gift things in recent years aimed at women. The pendulum seems to swing widely, from one extreme to another. Wisdom and nuance are important.

    So my friend and I drove all the way out to Pomona (she drove) near the foothills only to find that the county fair complex where the craft fair is held lost power and they had no idea when (or if) it would be back on. This is a three-day event that draws vendors and shoppers from all over (when I mentioned to the parking attendant that we’d driven a ways, she said ‘Tell me about it, I just turned away someone who came flew in from Washington state.’)

    Anyway, my friend and I had lunch then headed back for the update (we couldn’t find anything online and the phone line was strictly their normal recording info). At that point we were told it “might” be open in 2 hours but maybe not. So we decided to head back to the coast and did some Christmas shopping at a couple places near home.

    Tomorrow is house cleaning, curtain re-install (some of them were taken or fell off during all the house commotion), and hopefully the start of decorating. There’s also the annual Christmas party hosted by our retired dog park friend, a longtime nurse at a very renowned celebrity-connected hospital. Our church Christmas party is next Saturday night.

    I’m now trying to figure out how long it’ll take my wood gates and fence to dry out for staining. Two days? With rain coming possible again by Wednesday, not sure I have a big enough window for that job.

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  64. Kim, I got the free samples of the synthetic roof tiles today, they’re awesome. But the sales rep already said the cost would be (considerably?) more than the metal panels 😦

    At any rate, it’s a job that’s not getting done immediately but I’ll try to get a legit quote from him in the meantime.

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  66. Kim and DJ – Oh, yes, there are so many jokey memes on Facebook about the mommy/wife needing her wine that they make me uncomfortable.

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