Anyone have something to share?
Psalm 119:73-88
י Yodh
73 Your hands made me and formed me;
give me understanding to learn your commands.
74 May those who fear you rejoice when they see me,
for I have put my hope in your word.
75 I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous,
and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
76 May your unfailing love be my comfort,
according to your promise to your servant.
77 Let your compassion come to me that I may live,
for your law is my delight.
78 May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause;
but I will meditate on your precepts.
79 May those who fear you turn to me,
those who understand your statutes.
80 May I wholeheartedly follow your decrees,
that I may not be put to shame.
כ Kaph
81 My soul faints with longing for your salvation,
but I have put my hope in your word.
82 My eyes fail, looking for your promise;
I say, “When will you comfort me?”
83 Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke,
I do not forget your decrees.
84 How long must your servant wait?
When will you punish my persecutors?
85 The arrogant dig pits to trap me,
contrary to your law.
86 All your commands are trustworthy;
help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.
87 They almost wiped me from the earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.
88 In your unfailing love preserve my life,
that I may obey the statutes of your mouth.
Wandering Views 
A praise and two prayer requests regarding my teaching day yesterday:
Praise: It was my last day of make-up lessons from my covid absences six weeks ago; done with all that now, and I feel so good!
Prayer request 1: Please pray for S, a piano mom. I don’t know specifics (thankfully the Lord does!), but she brought her son to lessons 25 minutes late to his scheduled 45-minute lesson. She was in tears and shaking as she entered the studio with him. 20 minutes later, at what would have been the normal lesson-ending time, I told her I could do the full 45-minute lesson if they were able to stay longer. I was relieved she said yes; she was still in no condition to be driving home, IMO, as her tears were still coming. By the end of the lesson, she was more composed, though tears still glistened in her eyes. Her son was not phased by any of it, so I suspect something happened, either at S’s workplace or on her commute home to get her son and bring him to lessons, something of which the boy was probably unaware.
Thanks for your prayers for S. This is so uncharacteristic of her — she’s always been upbeat and exuberant, and is an avid runner and skier, which provides fantastic mental health benefits. Something really shook her yesterday.
Prayer request 2: I have recently thought often of the possibility that the gender identity crisis may impact students of mine someday. Perhaps because it’s been on my mind lately but is only a figment of my imagination, but yesterday I met a new student who has a boy name but, to me, looks more like a girl.
The situation may only be that — a boy with more feminine facial features — but it got me to thinking more about what I should do if I later learn the child is female. Students open up to me sometimes, unprompted, about their personal lives.
Please pray for wisdom for me. I’d only previously thought about, “What if one of my students and/or parents announces, ‘So-and-so is now this name and gender.'” My belief is that my conscience wouldn’t allow me to affirm the child’s “new” gender and call him/her by the name that reflects that “change.” But until yesterday, I hadn’t thought about receiving a student who may have already begun “transitioning” and the only name I know him/her by is the new name.
I’m not explaining myself very well. It seems the simple answer would be, just teach, but there are so many layers to all this, one of which is that children appear to respond favorably when I use their names. IMO, it seems impersonal not to in the teacher-student relationship.
Thank you for praying as the Lord leads you.
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I think you trust the Holy Spirit to give you the answer you and your student need when/should the question arise.
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Oh, 6, I understand your concern. It is so easy for people to take offense and not give grace over names and pronouns. I once faced a situation in the tax office where a guy had transitioned to a gal. I heard thathe had before he came in. Then when I got the file and it had the name on it, I innocently asked about what name he was going by, and I meant first name or middle name, but the person took offense to my question. I was not asking, “Are you going by the guy name or girl name?”
Yes, the Holy Spirit will help you at the time, but you can also pray for wisdom and seek godly counsel as addirional helps for these troubling times. The landmines are allb9ver the place on this issue.
Prayers for that upset mom. May it be something already resolved and not an ongoing situation.
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6, when I did that it was quite a few years back, at least five, so the transitioning was not so prevalent then. I had not given any advance thought to situations like that. It is good to think ahead and ask God to prepare you for what He wants you to do. I personally don’t think it affirms someone’s choices to simply call them by the name they prefer at any given time. In my mind, I would think of it more like a nickname, so I would leave it at that unless God makes it clear that He wants you to handle it otherwise.
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M, yes, trusting the Holy Spirit to give me the words when I need them is key. And also difficult for me; I’m often full of thoughts like, “What if I don’t hear the Spirit and say something stupid instead?”
I struggle with faith that God can override my sometimes-cluelessness. Ugh.
Janice, your mention of the man at the tax office who “became” a woman reminded me of an instructor 2nd Arrow had when she was still living at home and taking courses at our local tech school. The man had had the surgery and all that and changed his name to a female one. 2nd said that he would frequently walk up and down the rows of students, and occasionally he’d slam his hand down hard on someone’s desk and yell at the individual, “You’re not paying attention!” and would then laugh raucously at whichever student got targeted that day.
Didn’t sound very feminine to me.
The saddest thing was seeing him in the community one time. I wouldn’t have known who he was, but 2nd was with me grocery shopping one time when he was in the checkout line about two people ahead of us. 2nd nudged me and whispered, “That’s my econ professor.”
He stood at the checkout, tall, huge-boned, an imposing figure, wearing a dress, and fumbled getting money out of his purse, his hands trembling. His voice was weak and timid as he addressed the cashier. I’ve never seen anyone look so uncomfortable in their skin as this man who was convinced he was a woman.
Very very sad, the delusion he was under.
It left an impression on me that I can’t help promote others’ similar delusions that “I am whoever I decide I am.”
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6, I don’t always remember to do so, but I try to think as Jesus, and see beyond the moment in time and realize the person’s potential in Christ. I think that can help. These people who have either never known God’s better way or do know and rebel against it, are living in emotional turmoil for they have no firm foundation. At some point they will probably get to the end of themselves and may at that time welcome God and His loving boundaries that tell them who He made them to be. Then they will no longer have to rely on flighty feelings to dictate their identity. It is all around me here. It is so much easier to have one’s identity in Christ as a starting point. And that identity is even more basic than race. God knew what He was doing and He gave us His word so we are not clueless.
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What a clumsy sentence I wrote at the end of my 3:35 comment, I just realized! The “I can’t help promote…” part is probably unclear whether I want to promote something or not promote something.
What I meant is that I don’t want to call someone by a name that is born out of a delusion.
I’m not against people changing their names, per se. I think there are good reasons for changing one’s name.
Many of my nieces and nephews who are adopted have different names now than what they were given at birth. Some of my sibs/in-laws changed their children’s names when they came to this country. It represented a change of citizenship, and a welcome into a family.
For my sister and brother-in-law, the adoptions and their children’s name changes also celebrated their entry into a Christian family, a very fitting, appropriate and blessed occasion to do so. (And one of my nephews’ original name sounded similar to the word “demon,” so they definitely wanted that changed.)
Maybe I’m narrow-minded, though no one has accused me of that, please understand, but I have a hard time seeing that when, on the other hand, a gender-confused individual changes his/her name to reflect what he/she believes is his/her actual gender or preferred gender or gender of the day or whatever, it’s not born out of confusion and delusion.
God created us in His image. He doesn’t make mistakes. We are precious to Him, whether male or female, and He created us lovingly just the way He made us.
Again, I don’t want to sound like I’m anti-name-change, or against having a name that sounds more male when one is female, and vice-versa. I actually have a sister-in-law with a decidedly male nickname; she’s had it since childhood, probably because she was one of the older children in the family and one of the younger children may not have been able to pronounce her name correctly. I don’t personally call her by her nickname, but I wouldn’t hesitate at all to call her that if I was so inclined to use people’s nicknames.
But if she had decided in adulthood that she identified as male and then gave herself that name and asked that people not use her female name anymore, I don’t think I could personally do that with a clear conscience before God. He lovingly created her female, and my love for her, and especially for God with His perfect design and plan for her life, would compel me, I believe, to affirm God’s truth about who she is. A male name decided upon under circumstances of confusion isn’t based on truth, but is a deception that was foisted upon a vulnerable individual by someone else.
Some may see it differently, I recognize. Most of all, I think the pronoun issue is the biggest lie of all, however. It denies God’s remarkable design of the human body and the many ways males differ from females.
I have probably said more than enough now.
Thank you for praying for wisdom for me. I want to love God and the people He places into my life as best I can. Love and Truth go together; thanks be to God for His unfailing mercies on us all.
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While it does do some good to think ahead to what you would do and not do, I think right now you treat the student as they have been presented to you. Build a relationship with them. You never know when a kindness to someone will change someone for the better. It isn’t your “battle” yet.
I fall asleep a lot of the time to documentaries. There is a man/woman that appears in a lot of them as a history of war expert. “Her” voice is falsely high and sounds stupid. “She” dresses atrociously trying to cover the fact that “she” really is a man.
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The above was Kim
Now. I need prayer. I am going to have to take a stand Monday and let one of my agents go. I hate it because he is someone I admire and I genuinely like him. He blatantly did the opposite of what I told him to do and manipulated the contract. It was an “in house” sale. Our policy is a 50/50 split on commission. I had called the title company last week and told them what to do and had emailed them. He went back and “ammended” the listing agreement to 5% giving himself a 1% “bonus” so he gave my other agent less than he should have.
Mr P and I were talking about it this morning and he was “coaching” me on what to say. Finally I told him I can’t do it that way. If I were a man I wouldn’t phrase it that way, so I can’t say, “I’m sorry I have to let you go”. I have to say “I am letting you go and you have until 5pm to find a place for your license. I will deactivate it at 5:01pm.”
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That is a tough situation, Kim. Praying for wisdom and strength for you. And peace in your heart.
*******
Well, you all know that the name discussion is not a hypothetical one for me. I call Chickadee the name that she has chosen (which is actually one that can be a nickname for a female as well, so that helps), but I do find myself doing verbal gymnastics to avoid having to use a pronoun. When I can’t find my way around it in a sentence, I do use “him” or “they”, but either one feels so awkward.
Nightingale says that my doing so shows respect for Chickadee as a person, while it is known that I have not swallowed the whole transgender ideology. It is kind of like walking a tightrope.
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We are predicted to have thunderstorms and/or steady rain through the night, all day tomorrow, and all night tomorrow into Monday. We, my husband in particular, are flood weary from the damage it caused here two weeks ago, and from the expense and labor it required for the clean-up.
I need to leave the house early for rehearsal before playing my viola in all three services tomorrow morning. We’d appreciate prayers for safety on the road, and that our driveway won’t get torn apart again with the rain that is 70-90% certain to come.
Thank you for praying about likely situations before they materialize.
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The Roasaria Butterfield interview on Ligonier was recommended by our pastor today.
I was thinking about the reaction he had when the film “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) came out and he was in a theater where it was shown as a preview. The film was something of an opening salvo aimed at general audiences in support of gay marriage.
I wonder if he — or any of us — could have ever imagined how quickly our culture would go from there in embracing some of these and notions.
Meanwhile, I read this last night:
__________________________
https://corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/3-ways-to-engage-lgbtq-pride-month/
3 Ways to Engage LGBTQ+ Pride Month
BY
Michael Horton
POSTED June 1, 2022
~ Today is the beginning of LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Reach out intentionally to people you know who are celebrating this way of life with pride. Acknowledge their dignity and worth first. Love them first, as Jesus did Zaccheaus, when he said “I must come to your house for dinner” before he said anything else. Show hospitality first. Creation in the image of God comes first in order before we talk about the Fall.
2. We can all take this month as a time to take pride in Christ’s victory over the guilt and condemnation for sin. …
… We never cease the warfare against sin until we die. I’m going to ask the Lord to show me this month especially what I take pride in that displeases him, the secret sins that I justify and even feed like a pet. Do we take pride in selfishness, dissensions, and devouring one another (“in defense of the truth,” of course)? In greed (“so we can serve his kingdom”) or gossip (“so we can pray for them more intelligently”)? These sins are always listed in Scripture wherever we find homosexuality mentioned. And what heterosexual sins do we tolerate merely as weaknesses or a “mistake”? We hear all too regularly about sexual violence in the church. So do our non-Christian relatives, friends and neighbors. Instead of taking pride in our sins, let us heed the command he command “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires” (Eph. 4:22).
3. Pray for people we know who are bound by the cruel counsel that good is evil and evil is good. False prophets who tend the wound of his people lightly, saying, “‘Peace,’ ‘peace,’ when there is no peace” are Satan’s apprentices in keeping people from enjoying the gift of repentance and liberation in Christ through faith in his gospel. This is not a time to pray for judgment, much less to presume to exercise it ourselves. “This is the Day of Salvation.” So let’s have the heart of Jesus, who rebuked James and John for trying to call down fire on the Samaritans who rejected their message. Judgment will come—for all of us—and because “no one is righteous—no, not even one” (Rom 3:10), we will all be condemned apart from the justification that is found in Christ’s alien righteousness.
So instead of just rolling our eyes this Pride month, let’s use it as a springboard for loving outreach and hospitality, for self-examination, and for prayer that people we love will find, instead of pride in a way that leads to death, release from captivity.
_______________________________
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*Rosaria
*embracing some of these other notions
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Prayers for our nation with this series of mass shootings that seem to be happening almost daily. ?
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Forgot to mention that I did finish that video, and what she had to say seemed softer than the article that I had previously read. In the video, she acknowledged the strong delusion that they are under, which I appreciated.
I continue to pray for a “great awakening” among those who consider themselves in the LGBTQ-etc. camp.
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I’ve heard some of Rosaria Butterfield’s talks before and appreciate her biblical stance. I remember her saying about how hospitality is a big part of the LGBT… community, which I believe I’ve seen in action with one of my students. His mom “married” another woman, and for a while a couple years ago, there would be a few young women who would take turns bringing the boy to his lesson on occasion. Mom would text me ahead of time, “_____ [name of young woman] will be bringing _____ [student] to his lesson tonight.” It seemed they were part of a community that helped out others in the group.
I don’t know for certain how they knew each other, or what commonalities brought them together, but it’s a good reminder for me as a Christian that I am called to extend hospitality as well, as DJ’s link above mentions, too.
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Thank you for praying about the rainfall situation. We’ve had very little rain accumulation these past 24 hours, thankfully, and the rain is now predicted to continue to be light and to stop entirely by noon tomorrow. The new gravel on our driveway has been holding up well, for which we are mighty grateful! Many thanks for your prayers. 🙂
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I think the strength or Rosario is she has been there; done that as far as the gay lifestyle. It doesn’t make everything she says true, however. No one is right on everything.
I just heard of a young man who killed himself by deliberately hitting a train. He was only twenty. He did have some drug issues previously but seemed to be getting better. So many sad stories about young people and their despair.
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