The gentleman's post resonated - he remembers the 80s, when he was in the kiddie warehouse.

He said, he remembers the other kids - they didn't want to be there either.  Of course not!  Little boys want to run and play outside, but outside is traffic - and maybe a few unsavory people roaming the streets, and alleyways.  There's also insurance - if a kid runs off, trips, and ends up with a bo-bo on his knee...oh, that could yeild some easy fun money for the kid's parent/s.  

And yeah, moms have to work...just the way things are.  And it's just the way things are, the kids end up losing out - on their childhoods.

Oh for sure, the kids end up, 4th, 5th... place.  There was this kid who, at a fast food restaurant, had slightly bumped into a high chair.  Well, no fake, heard the mother spout off, with a snarl, (of flipping course :/ something about they could "get sued."  Uhm, the freaking chair came nowhere close to even a mild topple.  What the hey, why upset a kid over a non-occurrence!  Wouldn't a dramafree "be careful, hon" had been sufficient?  It was more like the child had brushed up against the high chair - that was sitting in the freaking aisle, to begin with; if the baby's parents are so concerned, you'd think they'd of chosen a better place to eat supper.  But anyway...

As a seven-ish year old, having witnessed the needless scene, i remember thinking, along the lines, that the baby musn't that important to the opportunistic parents, who'd jump for the chance to cash in, quick.  Adults (want to) think, kids are stupid, dolts, and that's so NOT TRUE!

"Dan: A Serpent by the Way..." is posted on the sidebar

The first half of Pastor Garrison's 40-ish minute sermon focuses upon several of Jacob's twelve sons.  The second half, gets into how one can, and does, end up "unhorsed" not by the drunkards and the gamblers, but from some venom, that shot from a few pews ... somewhere thataways.

In short, we expect unsaved people to invalidate - or just be plain harsh, but even born-again people can get snitty - though saved people know back-biting is sin, and so, pray and strive to get the heck over their sweet little selves.  

Thing is, 2nd Peter, Chapter 3, and the Book of Jude, reminds us, that just because you're wearing a lab coat, doesn't make you a biologist.  So yeah, Christians need to "be wise as serpents, harmless as doves."  

"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."  Jude 1:4

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."  Matthew 10:16

If i was lost, would have been mad as heck while taking a seat in church yesterday.

While people were filing in, heard a conversation from a few rows behind me.  Yeppers, another boomer/silent gen couple were going on about having gone abroad.  Some people have the money for that sort of thing, and barely sweat a molecule when the car insurance arrives.  Anyway, the green demon overheard the convo too, and had managed to gettwo or three slimey words in my ear.  Well, like the last time, just calmly, politely told ole greenie to git.

Thing is, can empathize with younger people, who don't have a pension plan where they work - and frankly, aren't sure if their (rather shabbily paying) job will be around later in the year.  As for social security? That's anyone's guess :/  While i enjoy listening to Dave Ramsey, it's hard to put away 1/5 of your gross, when you can barely put food on the table/pay the (insane) rent.

What rattled around my mind, and still is: what if i was 30 or 40 years younger, and unsaved?  Would i had just sat there half simmering through the service, then left...never to return to that, or any other Bible church?  (The one or two niv-ish per sermonette "churches" don't even factor - they're just sunday morning socials.)  Would that of happened?

That sort of thing happened, a few times, to another blogger.  She (and her husband both) struggling financially, had gone to a Bible church, and heard similar clubbishness.  This went down a few years ago; guess it's been two or three years, she has decided to identify as agnostic.  Well yeah!  Turned off people tend to go that direction.  Sad, sad, because the lady read the Scriptures; she'd a separate blog, and it was quite evident, she did her homework.  She's smart too.

Bet she's not the only agnostic (or non) who'd witnessed the same.  Come to think of it, there's a sermon i'd recently heard that addresses how people get turned off at church.  When the Scriptures aren't really taken serious, or just plain twisted for the sake of the cool kids' agenda....  Anyway, getting off here, to go find that sermon, and post it on the sidebar. 

Bye, for now :)

What's with the apparent dumbing down in society? Just a thought that popped up.

Doesn't take a Ph.D. to know, that preschool children need lots of time to play, to imagine, to try this and that, in order for their brains to develop properly.  For young brains to form those neuron connections - in order to grow as individuals (uhm, like God intended) kids need lots of unstructured hours - and hey, before too long, they'll have plenty of time to be stuck running the rat race.  Anyway, those very precious unstructured hours aren't going to happen at the daycare center.  Shut in among too many other kids, and too few (and horrendously underpaid) daycare workers.

Back in the 80s, people were asking, what will become of these young prisoners?  People were speculating that these locked away two-yearolds would, in later years, lack typical problem-solving skills - ya know, like not having a complete melt-down.. because the mickey-ds happens to be out of avocado shakes.

Well, those questions have been getting answers - and the scenes being caused are not pretty.  

But that's only half of it - if that.  Moms have to work.  And as for the ongoing bs about buying the later model ranger...i.e., reliable transportation.  What? Is it wise to pack your kids in a dented '95 econo-can?  Sadly, but realistically, smart moms work; smart moms maintain a plan b, because plan a is known to eventually experience a mid-life crises - or whatever new term is now used to describe such naval gazing :/  Even if plan b doesn't move in with his playmate-of-the-season, too many of these guys don't think enough of their families to provide emergency funds (savings, life insurance).  Oh, heavenly days no, the bass-boat, the super wide-screen, the "sporting" trips are way more important.

Women are waking up.  Too bad the kids are ending up warehouses.  But what's worse?  A few hours in daycare, or years of nagging poverty?  If anything effs up a kid, it's so definitely the later - even if the kid somehow gets out of that grind, the very real trauma of poverty will likely haunt that individual for a lifetime - like a slimey demon.

Oh, here we go again - the ole, "divorce rates are higher among Christians..."

From what stale cereal box was that one pulled?  Oh, could the stats actually be the divorce rates among, let's say five thousand individual Christians and five thousand individual non-christians?  Sure, it's very believable the first group of five thousand will have the higher amount of divorces; simply because, within this first group, more marriages had taken place, while in the  second group, more couples didn't bother themselves, and so had decided to merely play house.  

Or, did the numbers only include married people?  Ya know, taking a poll, and coming up with five thousand from each camp.  Which leads to the question of how many Christians were asked, and how many non-christians?   Have to seriously wonder, how many extra thousand, or two, of the non-believers had to be asked, in order to come up with the five thousand - or whatever number chosen for the study group? Anyway, stats are so easy to manipulate, and mudslinging is nothing new.

Per the last post, there's Scripture to back that up. For starters,

Ecclesiastes 8:2

"I counsel thee to keep the King's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God."

Matthew 22:21 

"They say unto him, Caesar's.   Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. "

Roman's 13:3

"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.  Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?  do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:"

There are more Scriptures,  but i godda git, bye :)

Haven't seen the following questions addressed on the internet - so, i'll do the asking. At FirstKultQuiverFullChurch, the preeecher was going on,

that is, after the couples assembled, having had x-amount of kids...  Anyway, the preacher was going on about why the state has no business expecting its citizens (or non-citizens) to apply for marriage licenses.  Hopefully, the church (?) flies a big RED flag.  But whether or not, they've atleast the common grace to post a clear warning, right outside their building, here are some questions:

After all those kids - from tottler to teen - what is to become of the children if the marriage ends in divorce?  Am not a lawyer, so that's just another reason for asking.  Are there more lawyer hours involved when the splitting-up couple doesn't have a marriage license.  And yeah, one doesn't have to be married by the state to be granted child support.  But what about the custodial parent's (mom) living arrangements?  If mom and kids are kicked out of the house...how on earth is she to provide a roof over her four or more kids?  Child support pays for food and clothing; it is not designed to fund rental expense.  In short, if you're not married by the state, dad can show mom and kids the door, then move in his girlfriend.

But what if the couple stays together, till death do part?  If their union isn't recognized by the state, what about survivor's benefits?  What about the property, wills, cds, life insurance and such - that is, if jasper had the forethought, the concern... :/  Probate is expensive - about 6k, and it takes about a year.  It's enough to be heartbroke when your "partner" dies... but to be left broke (because jasper was simply being jasper) that's unconscionable - plain and simple.

Well yeah, she is fat - stuck wearing awful sweats, not much of an incentive.

Watched a you-tube, where a woman, whose life was nothing but drudge, drudge, and more drudge.  Hardly enough time to enjoy, even five minutes in the shower - that is, if she was able to get a shower that day; forget about any time available to make herself pretty - that could go some ways toward melting off the 30 excess pounds...oh wait, that would mean some household money spent on her - can't have that, can we :/  But you can about bet, her partner gets his new fishing rod, expects his nightly hummer, and enjoys an uninterrupted 15 minute shower every day. Speaking of (overly tasked) women's disinterest in sex,  number one: hummers are grossly one-sided; boy, talk about clear evidence...that peewee is just plain lousy in the sack.  And he doesn't care, because he only cares about his own sweet awesome self.

If the snowblower isn't maintained, it won't run. After the '93 blizzard...

Yep, we all had the shovels on ready, because the person's snowblower, didn't.  For the past 30 years, because of that entire afternoon, had written off snowblowers; wanted nothing to do with unreliable them - when actually, it wasn't the machine's neglect.  It was only a few days ago, did i realize, you have to start them up before the snow season; like a lawn mower, before spring.  Am considering buying one next year, or the year after - a good quality one, not some "pre-owned" hunk of junk.  While calling for a plow is an option (thank You Lord for the provisioning) ...yeah, how 'bout that, having better sense than blowing money on lottery tickets, tattoos, fast food, and other crap. 

The thing about calling for a plow is, these men are busy clearing out parking lots, of stores, hospitals, and homeowners whose health does not allow for shoveling or blowing snow.  So, that's where responsibility comes in - to have enough stuff, to sit tight for two or three days - if it really snows.  This past storm was just a little one, but sooner or later, a 2012 job is going to hit - where it was 2 to 3 inches per hour.  

This past storm, started shoveling, early and often.  Three hours yesterday - driveway is about 100 feet in length.  So glad to have an ergonomic shovel, otherwise, forget it.  

Why are most divorces initiated by women? Well, one reason might be

wannabe Dan'l Boone isn't willing to actually put in the work it takes to maintain a wood stove.  Or the common sense involved.  Right now, where i live, we are having a bit of a nor-easter - that means possible down-drafts; so it's better to burn smaller pieces; if the stove starts it's huff and puff drama, you just don't put any more in.  Oh, but having plenty of smaller pieces means ... oh heaven forbid, using an axe - a sharp one, not some dull-ars'd... that's fixing to slip off the handle.  And you always need a good supply of kindling.  In short, being proactive - yeah, offensive word.  Wood that has sat for three years is best; it's not only dry, but is way  easier to cut - especially for gals who don't have the upper body strength.  But that means keeping a supply, and having the space for wood you're now using, and wood you're holding off until next year, or the year after.  

Yep, having the winter's supply, if even that :/ stacked up on the porch, under some flimsy tarp - one that blows back, on rainy nights - against the house, not a smart idea ...there's more than enough jaspers doing just that.  Wood, no matter how neat you are about things, raises dust.  So, women who work full time, and, of course, saddled with the full second shift at home, are likely going to be STUCK trying to manage a disorderly environment - only 24 hours in a day.  Talk about hitting the wall - cleaning after the same cluttery set of messes, over and over again, without help, eventually gets old.  And no, that utility room shelf is still propped up against the sink...more dust. 

Oh brother, someone tried to pass off some nasty quote as Biblical.

While no great Bible scholar here, the so-called "scripture" - without chapter and verses ... are we surprised ;/  Anyway, the first verse included, "thou shalt not commit adultery."  Okay, that makes Biblical sense - But mid way into the second "passage" ... things turned ugly; didn't sound Biblical. Now maybe i was out that Sunday, but nowhere in the Bible, do i recall women being called evil - the context being, women all a bunch of hell bound reprobates.  Someone else pointed to Matthew 5:27-30.

Nope.

Here turns out, quote was from the Testament of Reuben - one of those books that didn't make the cut.  The Bible is the Lord's word, for real - evidently, the Lord had his reasons to include, or exclude, certain books.

Guess the guy who posted the comment didn't expect there'd be someone paying attention.  Anyway, the guy came back with all, "well, it should be in the Bible."  And i guess some cheerleader, back in '93, should have agreed to go dutch with him to mickeyDs.

But all quips aside.  The real issue is :  who else read the thread?  Some God hating ...  whatever, who came away from that "scripture" with yet one more reason to hate the Lord?  This happens.  By the way dutchy goes by some high-sounding religious handle...figures :/