Greeting Card Headaches

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Finding the right greeting card can be so frustrating.  

 Like, where is the "I'm sorry you got arrested and will probably spend the rest of your life in prison ... but even though this terribly affected our family and friends forever, I love you anyway and hope you have as merry of a Christmas as you can, under these circumstances" kind of card?

 Oh, the headaches of trying to find the perfect card!
(And, no, I'm not joking.  I mean, yes I am, to a degree.  But in a "if I don't laugh about it, then I'll cry" kind of way.)

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

What Real Encouragement Looks Like Sometimes!

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Who would've thought that "encouraging each other in the Lord" would take the form of two hours of telling each other, "Yep, that crap's hard!"? - A text I got from a friend after a long conversation about the trials we've been through, the heartaches we've known, and how difficult life can be sometimes.  It made me smile!
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When clowns run the circus

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So get this:  An Arizona elementary school should not hire teachers with Christian values because it doesn't feel "safe"... so says the self-proclaimed "queer" schoolboard member  wearing cat ears .  ( See here .)  
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Updated: Alana L. 5L (misunderstood sovereignty)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]  Point #5 still :   L : "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."   Misunderstood "sovereignty" You see, the thing is (and what most people fail to realize is) that Calvinists  incorrectly  make sovereignty about how God must  use  His authority and power, believing that He  must   always  be  using  His all-powerful authority  all the time  to  preplan ,  cause ,  contro l   everything , even sin and evil and unbelief,  "or else He's not a sovereign, omnipotent, in-control God." As  John MacArthur  says :  "... [God]  makes every decision that’s ever been made,   essentially, about everything....  He is the decider and ...
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White horses and a cup of tea (part 3)

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[I'm working my way through this slowly.  Click here for part 1 and part 2 of this series.]  First, here's The White Horse Parable again (my version): A man and his son owned a field that they farmed for a living.  And one day, they found a white horse in the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer.  "A free horse." But then the horse started tearing up their plants.   "Oh, this is terrible.  What a curse!" cried the farmer.   But then they caught the horse and tamed it and were able to use it to farm the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer. But then the son was thrown off the horse, broke both arms, and couldn't farm for months, reducing their sales and income. "Oh, what a curse," said the farmer. "I wish this horse never came to us.  Why, God?  Why!?!" But then a war started, and the army issued a draft.  But because the son had broken arms, he was excused from the draft and didn't have to f...
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More Gender Nonsense

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Okay, so about 40% of Americans in a recent survey say that gender isn’t determined at birth.   Hmm? Hmm? … Let me think about that a minute … If I say that a horse isn’t a horse, that it’s really born as an unspecified species and that, if it wants to, it can grow up to be a squirrel or a dog or a cow … does it really change its “horseness”?   If I say that my chromosomes are not human chromosomes but eagle chromosomes, does it make me an eagle?      Does denial or wishful thinking change reality? We can live in denial of reality, but our beliefs don’t change reality. (It’s funny … but living in denial of reality used to be called “crazy.”   Delusional.   Now it’s considered hip and progressive and celebratory.) The thing is … our X or Y chromosomes are not just in our reproductive organs.   They are in every cell of our being, along with the rest of our chromosomes.   And that’s just...
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Where I'm Coming From ...

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            (Repost of "How I Broke" from my other blog.  FYI - this is a long post!   A really long post.   Did I mention it will be a long post?)               I had the pleasure of talking briefly with a friend the other day about her journey through depression/anxiety and about mine.   It was so refreshing to be able to talk a bit about my struggles, to not feel like I had to answer “I’m fine.   How are you?”   She actually brought up her struggles first, and it gave me permission to talk about mine.               For the past year and more, I have only been able to be honest with and share my struggles with one friend.   (Thank God for her!   What a blessing!).   And with everyone else, it’s always been “I’m fine.   How are you?”      ...
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My Testimony

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I've scattered bits of my story all over my blogs, but I’m gonna pull it all together here, about how I became a believer and some things I’ve gone through and how my faith has been affected.  (I’ll include links to posts where I explain things more fully.) Starting the journey:    I became a believer when I was eleven years old.    (I am now getting close to 50.   I don't know how that happened. )    At a Christian camp, on one of the last nights, they gave an altar call.    I wanted to go up but was nervous about standing up in front of everyone.    But being more nervous about the window of opportunity closing, I felt myself stand up and walk to the front.    I knew exactly what I was doing, that I was making a commitment for life.    And I meant it.    I really meant it.    I knelt down, asked Jesus into my heart, and have never turned back.    It hasn’t been an easy, carefr...
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Support for Jesus and the Bible

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Although almost every other major religion out there acknowledges that Jesus really did live, there are still people who insist He is a fairy tale, like a mythological legend from ancient history.  Or they believe that He was a real man but never claimed to be God, that His followers made it up after He died.  And many believe that the Bible, though a good book, was written just from men’s minds and wasn’t really God-inspired. When trying to reason with people like this, many Christians quote Bible verses to try to win the argument, thinking it should convince everyone of God’s Truth.  But since many people, including atheists, don’t believe the Bible is true, they don’t want to hear the Bible being used to try to prove the validity of the Bible.  That’s “circular reasoning,” using the Bible to validate the Bible.  This is why it’s important to have sources outside the Bible that confirm that Jesus really did live and that Scripture is really rel...
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"Bring me pain, Lord, if it brings You glory!"

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(Reposted from my other blog.)  I’ve always found the statements of “I want the Lord to do whatever He wants in my life to bring Him the most glory possible, even if it means bringing me pain” to be inspirational … and a bit “off.” Wh en I was 21 (half my lifetime ago), I went to Papua New Guinea for a summer on a mission trip.    And I told my mom that I picked PNG over any other place because it was so remote and primitive.    I said that I wanted to have everything taken away to really challenge me, to grow my faith in new ways.    And I meant it.    I really did.    My heart was in the right place. But my mom said something wise, something that stuck.    She said, “Don’t ask for that!    Never ask for that!    Because He could take away everything – your legs, your eyesight, your health, your home, etc.” Wow!    So true. As I thought about it, I realized that I didn’t really want God to do...
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