Comments for Blooming Joy!

Comment on Oy, with the poodles already! by Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:57:46 +0000

I can totally relate to the family thing. I know my husband’s extended family better than I know my own due to the fact that they ALL live in CT and I have been to 3 family reunions in the 12 years we have been together. I think I have been to 1 family reunion on my Mom’s side -ever – and one family reunion on my Dad’s side – ever!

Comment on Oy, with the poodles already! by bethany actually

bethany actually — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:24:01 +0000

It is funny that we missed each other yet again. But really, you should be glad you missed me this time! I ended up changing our flights because Annalie and I were so sick, I couldn’t imagine flying home on Wednesday! Stupid virus. We’re getting better now, slowly.

Good luck getting back into a routine!

Comment on Doing stuff with members by Travis

Travis — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:42:27 +0000

You are so cute….I can tell you are not happy with our washer (besides the fact I heard you yell at it ) You went from members (who you are happy with) …to a washing machine in a few sentences! That is cute! Love ya!

Comment on Mea Culpa by Becky

Becky — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:45:46 +0000

So glad you’re back! I’ll be praying for you as you wade through your vocational crisis. The book you mentioned sounds interesting, and I will check it out as I feel like I’m in the same boat you are. Hopefully you’ll get to spend a bit more time at home before the next journey.
Love you!
Bec

Comment on Listening to God by jim

jim — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:14:20 +0000

Stephanie,

May God bless you as you travel to and from the funeral, first off.

Second – listening to God. Boy, have I tried everything over the years. Charles Stanley has a really good book about it, but it really causes no advantage. I find that what works best for me is to clear my head during prayer and listen for His guidance, then to see where he leads me in scripture that day.

Hope this may help.
Jim

Comment on The disconnection of being connected by bethany actually

bethany actually — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:07:19 +0000

I think the internet, in all its iterations, is what you make of it. I’ve formed some of my richest, closest friendships via the internet–but then, I’ve also gone out of my way to meet those people in real life, and most of those meetings have only deepened and solidified the friendship.

The reverse is true, too, that some people I’ve known in real life have become better and better friends because I’ve been able to email with them and read their blogs despite living hundreds of miles away from them–like you! Or my good friend Joe, whom I went to high school with but didn’t really get to be good friends with till we were at different colleges and emailing each other. Now we’re both married and have lived in different states our whole adult lives, but partly thanks to email and the internet we’re as close as we ever were, and we see each other in real life whenever we can. In fact, he and his wife were just here visiting!

I do know what you mean about the overload, both real-life and virtual. I need that down time to recharge as well, and sometimes I feel like I’m blabbing too much on my blog and twitter and I get a little sick of myself. But really, the main reason I blog is to keep in touch with family and friends, to let them know what we’re up to. And twitter, well, that’s just for fun.

Comment on The disconnection of being connected by jim

jim — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:31:14 +0000

Yep, you’re right. I remember bulletin boarding, as it was, in the 1980’s with my brother in Nebraska and me in Oklahoma, then Alabama. If any computer geeks are reading this, it was PC Pursuit and Opus. At that time, anyone on the web could read anything that anyone else on the web wrote to anyone, but no one cared because we already all knew what everyone else was doing.

Today, spinoffs: it’s turned out like show and tell in grade school. There are some kids who want to hog it, take a lot of time, be important, be in the middle of things. There are others of us who just use blogs and such to communicate pretty much essential and fundamental things.

My wife always asks why people use Facebook instead of email. I think that’s a Mickey Rooney question. Email stays about as personal as you are gonna get on the web, and about as private as you’re gonna be, too. Whereas, as we know from the Verizon add, everyone else can read what you write on your daughter’s wall.

Here’s a theological answer. We connect as members of the Body in all kinds of ways, some of them being cybernetic. We support each other cybernetically, learn of each other’s life, happenings, needs, joys, pains, fears and foes cybernetically.

Finally, there is the anonymity and concealment thing. It’s not as much so for you and me, Stephanie, but some people love to be out there on the web because in truth no one knows who they really are. I assume Stephanie Pittock is on the other end of the 10-base T cabling, but it could just be someone else with a Schnauzer whose name is NOT Frodo and who never heard of Travis pretending to be you. Scary thought.

Comment on The danger of pedestals by Travis

Travis — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:53:13 +0000

Not to mention, it can hurt to fall off! Trust me, I know…

Comment on The call process by jim

jim — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:34:52 +0000

Well, Stephanie, this is a comment not only to the call process but also to the do everything/do nothing. It goes back to the days I would commute from Papillion (Omaha) to Lincoln and listen to Elisabeth Eliot who used to love to talk about people young and old coming to her for insight asking what God wanted them to do. Her response was very simple.

If you’re a pastor, be the best pastor you can be.
If you’re a ditchdigger, be the best ditchdigger you can be.
If you’re a wife, be the best wife you can be.

I am, as you know, sufficiently old fuddy duddy to believe that wifery is quite capable of being a full-time occupation (I actually have one of my mom’s college level textbooks from the 30’s for a 3-hr course she took in how to be a housewife). But beyond the occupation, your love to God with Travis is what drives the situation. Your role as God intends as far as I see it is to do and be what Travis needs you to do. If you need to teach Sunday School, OK. If you need to be following your DCE project, OK. If you need to be unpacking (packing?) boxes with Frodo, OK.

Being called comes from the Lord. Despite the committee and the fun times with the new members of the calling church, it is their invitation but God’s call. As far as His insight has led me to see, He called you as a couple and you responded to His call as a couple, reaching your decision for acceptance as a couple. That’s your job. You’ve done it well.

Comment on Feeling inadequate by Jim

Jim — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:14:45 +0000

You NEVER know what God is preparing you for. That is His objective. He prepares you for His needs. That eight years of music education may have just been to give the teachers a job – who knows? Remember, all is vanity and a chasing after wind when you get right down to it.

Getting away from the depressing, though – God never asks you to do anything He has not already prepared you for, and conversely what you think He has prepared you for He may never ask of you.

So keep in touch with skills and abilities and be aware when your gifts are coming out and praise the lord.