50 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 9-1-20

  1. Morning friends! Sweet little birds in the tree and those leaves will be turning colors soon I suppose. It is 40 degrees here on this first day of September. We had thunderstorms move through last night which almost never happens. Rain glorious rain!
    Husband is backpacking in the southwest mountains of CO with a friend. I fear they must have been covered in snow upon waking this morning…brrrrr

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  2. Good morning all! I hear a cheerful bird this morning. I think it may be a mocking bird. I wonder how many bird sounds that Cheryl has memorized?

    Now I hear hear Miss Bosley making her pitiful “lonesome me” meows that she makes when the house gets quite and she thinks her peeps have left her home alone. I call out to her, “I’m up here, Baby Cat.” Now she is quiet again.

    And now I hear another quite different bird sound that I am totally unfamiliar with. I need Cheryl’s expertise. It sounds like a smaller bird.

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  3. Typo Janice…I don’t see any either. Is autocorrect messing with you this morning? 😊
    Every morning our “Bertie the birdie”sings his heart out welcoming us to a new day. He is singing right now and trying to get my attention. He will let us know when his water needs changing and he really belts out a song when I am cleaning his cage. It’s nice to be appreciated by your bird 😂

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  4. And then there is this in my Bible reading this morning, “Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful.; rather, time and chance happen to all of them. For man certainly does not know his time like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.” Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

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  5. “The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where he arose”
    Or, as Shakespeare says, “Vanity of vanities”. I notice from some previous posts that some are learning that.
    It has been my status for about four years now.

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  6. I counted 13 magpies in the yard the other day. A decade ago it was rare to see them. They have an ugly call and so do the blue jays, IMO. I often hear bird calls that I do not know. Many years ago I listened to a recording of different calls with the birds identified for each. It was a year I was homeschooling and a friend lent it to me. So, so much to learn about our world, which goes along with Solomon’s writing, too. It is a joyful way to spend time and a vocation for some. It shows the absolute amazingness of our God.

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  7. My grandchildren are all going to school for, at least a couple of days a week. The one in TN is on his third or fourth week. He also has played in the band at a football game there. So far, so good. My granddaughter starts at the public school today after being at a Christian school. I am glad she can go and meet her teachers and some students. She has played softball with some of the students and has one classmate from her other school attending too. Such a strange year.

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  8. Janice, that passage is a reminder that, unlike the common cultural cant that you are what you make yourself (whether it isv called the ‘Protestant work ethic’ or ‘karma’, etc.), misfortunes such as poverty or illness can befall all alike. After all, all humans are under the curse, and there is none righteous, so it is impossible for any to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and make themselves wholly safe from the effects of the curse. All who decieve themselves to thinking they have built themselves an impregnable fortress from the troubles of the world will find themselves one day in the position of the rich man who planned to build larger barns to store his wealth and then died the same night.

    We Christians, while we are saved from the ultimate curse of eternal separation, still feel the course’s effects in this life. We also know that God can will suffering in our lives as he sees fit. As I observed to my mother, the concept of discipline by parents to their children involves more than punishment for wrongdoing, it also involves training on how to do right. We recognize this in the other ways we use the word, such as speaking of different disciplines, which involve study and practice to perfect. So, the discipline we experience from God as Christians, in facing challenges and hardships, is not solely punitive in nature, but rather, and more often I think, is intended to train us in the right way.

    This knowledge, of our mutual human fragility and the nature of God’s will in discipline, is what is the basis for to compell us to show mercy to those who are afflicted with poverty, illness, imprisonment, etc. In Christ’s prophecy of the sheep and the goats, the reason those who care for those in affliction are welcomed as Christ’s own, while those who failed to care for the afflicted are cast out from his presence, is that their action or inaction displays the true belief of each. Those who say they believe, but fail to help the afflicted are showing they do not actually believe that they are no better than those they fail to help. Their inaction shows they somehow think themselves more righteous/worthy/etc. in themselves of the gifts God has seen fit to give them than those with whom they refuse to share those gifts.

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  9. After taking a mental health day yesterday, I am in the office. I’ve just lost my oomph right now.
    Maybe it’s 2020, maybe it’s the time of the year, maybe it’s lots of things.

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  10. On yesterday’s conversation regarding big families. We encountered not a few large families as a part of ATI, part of the ‘Quiverfull’ movement. Like the Duggars, who were part of ATI and personally known to people whom we personally knew, these families appeared wonderful on the outside, and were often used as poster families of the benefits of ATI. Family after large family would come and play special music during the ATI conferences, siblings all dressed alike, the little ones provoking ‘aww’s from the audience with their tiny instruments or little piping voices. One family, with whom members of my family were closely connected, had the large ATI family appearance of children who acted as a family team, all playing musical instruments, cheerful and well behaved, dressing alike at conferences, etc. on the outside, had, like the Duggar family, dark secrets to hide. The damage done from those things the parents hid to preserve the reputation of their large family is still going in today. The Mennonites from whom my one sibling in-law comes also traditionally have large families and he can attest that those large families often allow abuse to simmer for years, as family ties are held to be more important than allowing truth and right to prevail. An abusive sibling, particularly one who is older, such as the eldest son of the Duggars, can wreak absolute havoc in such a tight knit family environment.

    I have no use for those who say the world is overpopulated and people need to have less children, but the opposite reaction can be just as destructive, particularly when large families are marketed as a way of saving a culture. Hitler encouraged large families, and several of his right hand men had many children, to encourage propogation of the master race while exterminating undesirables. ATI’s (and Vision Forum’s, etc.) argument for large families of Christians was that the secular people were having few children, so if Christians raised large families, they could repopulate these once Christian nations and take back the culture. It is a seductive argument, and one that has recently been resurrected once again: https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/06/needed-more-babies-for-baptists/. Knowing how pervasive the Basic Seminars of Gothard were in the US and how many people attended ATI conferences, I would not be surprised if the Southern Baptist president has been influenced by it. Of course, there is a flaw in using the reproduce to save the culture argument when it comes to Christianity. That is, that every child is born the natural enemy of God, and only the Holy Spirit knows which ones are his sheep.

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  11. Nuthatches! They’re such cute birds. I do know their sound, but I actually know very few bird calls/songs. Under 20, I’d say, though I’ve never actually counted.

    Just got back from a walk–saw two people from church eating in the parking lot where one of them works (the next lot over from the lot that is our condo), so I stopped and chatted . . . and I’d already called my husband to tell him I was on my way home, since he was cooking burgers for lunch. They’re ready!

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  12. I’m with Chas, how can it be September already?

    I’m stuck listening to what will be an all-day meeting of the LA county board of supes, I need to do a story on Item #19 (of 75 items, I believe it is) having to do with changes being suggested for tracking all the spending for the homeless issues. There are other issues coming up regarding law enforcement, BLM, and other reporters in our chain are following those items. Since the meeting began an hour ago, they’re still on pubic comment.

    I woke up to the power-sounds of the gardeners next door and my dogs barking (at the gardeners and the racket they were making) and, in the background, the cat meowing for breakfast and knocking things out of the kitchen top cooking utensil box (which she knows always gets my attention).

    Why can’t my mornings be more peaceful?

    If birds were singing, I didn’t hear them.

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  13. From World Magazine’s The Sift today:

    (While I’m not in agreement with MacArthur’s approach, I think the parking lot permit revocation is unfair; the church has so far prevailed with a judge in beating back the county’s push to issue a temporary restraining order against the church; the bigger state hearing is set for Friday, 9/4.)

    ____________________________

    LA County terminates parking agreement with MacArthur’s church

    Worshippers have nearly filled Grace Community Church’s 3,500-seat auditorium at times during the past several weeks in peaceful defiance of state and county health orders. So far, Los Angeles County hasn’t made good on threats of fines or imprisonment against the Sun Valley, Calif., church or its pastor, John MacArthur. But on Friday, the county’s Department of Public Works sent the church a letter giving it 30 days to vacate a large area of a nearby parking lot it has leased since 1975. Jenna Ellis, special counsel to Thomas More Society, which is representing the church, called the eviction an act of retaliation. “This is harassment, abusive, and unconscionable,” she said.

    Where does the case stand? A judge has declined several requests from the county to issue a temporary restraining order forbidding the congregation from gathering for indoor worship. A state court will hold a full hearing on the church’s religious liberty claims against the county on Friday.
    ___________________________

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  14. I enjoyed reading your blog post, Michelle. It goes along with my Bible reading in Ecclesiastes in that numerous things happen outside of our plans. In my online comment to my Bible study group, I said we can’t control all those chance happenings, but we can control our attitude or response to them. That is what you wrote in other more elegant words. I think there is a 4th response of sadness or depression. When I feel the weight of too many little things going wrong, I want to hibernate in a cave so nothing else has a chance to go wrong. I think that has been my response to Covid although it is the response required by the state for people in my age bracket.

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  15. Today, one of my favorite things happened. Being September 1, and a day off, Nightingale brought down some fall decorations and we began decorating the dining room and living room for fall. (She had already put the fall wreath on the front door.) This is one of my favorite things because it is always kind of fun when Nightingale and I (but mostly Nightingale) decorates for a new season. (We don’t specially decorate for summer, though. We leave most of the spring decorations out, except anything specifically Easter related.)

    We set things up, step back to admire or judge, then either tweak things or change them to something else. There is always a refreshing or festive kind of feeling in doing our decorating, and it is an enjoyable time together.

    Another reason today was a favorite things day is because it is September, and fall is on the way!

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  16. Question: If you use a treadmill (or have used one, or would if you could), would you use it for walking or running, or a combination of both?

    I bought a manual treadmill not too long ago, and I use it to walk. (It has an incline to it, which adds some difficulty to the walking, but is good for the legs.) Nightingale thinks that that is strange, and that a treadmill is meant for running on. I think it can be used both ways, and I’m pretty sure I am not the only one who walks on one.

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  17. I’ve always thought of them as either/or/both, Kizzie. In fact, I’d think they’re primarily for walking?

    Fall!

    It doesn’t “feel” like fall in Southern California until a bit later as our very-hot weather often lingers through most or all of September. But there is a different “feel” about the month, my neighbor was telling me yesterday (we were both out watering at the same time) that all the Halloween and fall decor is up now in the stores. Guess I haven’t been to a mainstream store in a while, just Sprouts for quick grocery runs or Smart N’ Final.

    I’m considering getting a stationary bicycle.

    Last night, I went yet a little farther on the dog walk, we actually walked up a couple blocks with a slight incline that has been part of the regular walk. It’s not a street I typically drive on, though, and I especially wanted to check out a Crafstman house that is now on the market — it had belonged to an attorney who was hardly ever home and I never did get a good look at the house before, it was very overgrown with vegetation &, in earlier years, he had two wolf-hybrid dogs in the front as well who took exception to passers-by. He was rarely home and I don’t think I’d ever even seen the guy, the house was always dark.

    I heard he’d died a year or so ago and now, the property has all been cleared out and I think this is the first full view I’ve ever had of the house. It’s charming, clearly from the very early 1900s, but I was disappointed in the very modern windows they put in the front of it, plain vinyl sliders. Really? Well, maybe whoever buys it will swap those out for something that at least blends better with the period of the house.

    Tomorrow I’m being bold and am accompanying the photographer on a hard-hat tour of the new bridge over the port that’s just about done now. I let the organizer rep know that I’ve been dealing with a knee injury, but my therapist encouraged me to go for it when I asked him a week or two ago. Looks like they’ll take us, caravan style, on a drive up to the bridge and then we’ll get out for the look-see, a bit of walking, and interviews. Therapist told me if the knee gave me too much trouble to just “stop.” haha. Hope they don’t just keep walking and leave me stranded there.

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  18. Karen, @ 3:43. I have never heard the issue raised before. Bottom line:
    A treadmill is for whatever you want to do. Walk, run. stand on and think. Or, sit in the corner and do nothing.
    The treadmill doesn’t care.
    I have had a treadmill and it has gone through all those phases without incident.

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  19. I walk on the treadmill. Husband used to run (before knee issues) 🙂
    We’ve also used it for the dog when it was blizzarding and no one should be out walking in it.

    The two new park wardens that are coming to work for husband have larger families. Five and six children.

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  20. I’m missing the beach myself, Janice.

    I’m just in from driving perhaps further east than I have since January. I took my friend to the dermatologist 20 minutes away. Sigh.

    Excuse me, I visited a friend several blocks further east in July. Still . . . .

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  21. Kizzie you can do whatever you feel comfortable on the treadmill. I would walk at 4mph then ramp it up to 6 for a jog. The incline feature is great as it works on different muscles. We gave ours to a friend and got an elliptical which is easier on my knees.
    We are predicted to be in the 80’s this weekend but our local weather guy just mentioned we may see snow Monday night into Tuesday. I wondered about that when I saw the low on Monday was going to be 32….time to check the furnace filter 🔥

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  22. I have to start walking, weight lifting and doing my other exercises again. I was doing great until August then I just sat down and couldn’t get back up. This morning I had my shoes set aside to go waking, but didn’t make it. Tomorrow is the Day!!!!

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  23. Go Kim, go! Just do it! Get up and go with cheerios.

    I have been walking. And today’s weight lifting was five gallon buckets of water carried to the end of the driveway to water some newly planted trees of unknown type. Daughter and I carried around twelve buckets. Exercise is where you find it. In the winter, it is upstairs on the treadmill, nordic track, bike, and bowflex. And tried some tai chi.

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  24. I walk on my treadmill while reading a book. My grandson has run on it and a daughter at one time or other. Other grandchildren have done whatever on it until I caught them having used it and again lectured them, that they are not to be on it period. They have the great outdoors and I don’t want to take anyone to the ER and it is too expensive for them to replace if they do something foolish.

    I have a SIL who tells me she cannot walk on a treadmill. She just cannot. I cannot imagine why not. You just walk. Nope, says it doesn’t work that way for her.

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  25. Kathaleena, I can sort of understand. That is why I hold the rails. It feels like it is slipping at times and it takes me more than a moment to get the rhythm. When I first started on them I thought I would never get it. Too much motion.

    And my children did not understand my not allowing them on my equipment.

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  26. I guess Nightingale has just assumed that treadmills are for running on. Maybe that’s all she saw them being used for when she had the gym membership.

    Ideally, I would love to read while I walk on mine, but I have to hold on. It’s something about the incline and the fact that it is a manual treadmill, I guess. (By “manual”, I mean that it is not an automatic electric one. You make it go with your feet, so I think that, along with the incline, makes it a little more difficult.)

    Like

  27. I am thinking that my Dell latitude laptop might need a new power cord. Where to get it is the question. I was looking at one online at walmart and then it said that it was used. They have new ones on amazon, but the reviews are bad. hmmm….

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  28. Nordic Track, Bowflex? Those are pretty high-end.

    It makes me think of those hip commercials where the gal and guy, in neighboring big-city apartments with huge windows, compete with each other every morning, sweating and pumping those pedals, up-up-up on the inclines, who can get there first, laughing and flirting, tossing their towels over their shoulders as they walk away smiling.

    Exercise never seems that fun to me.

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  29. DJ, we have had and used them for twenty plus years on the nordic track and fifteen on the bowflex so they have paid for themselves as opposed to gym memberships which would be a long drive from here.

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