Relationships in TROUBLE!!

These are just for fun:
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Gertie and Gip brought their new baby home, and Gertie suggested that Gip should try his hand at changing diapers. Gip answered, "I'll do the next one." Well, the next time came around, and Gertie asked again. A bit agitated, Gip replied, "I didn't mean the next diaper. I meant the next baby!"

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An angry young wife told her lazy husband who refused to get a job, "I'm ashamed of the way we live. My father pays our rent. My mother buys all of our food. My sister buys our clothes. My aunt bought us a car. I'm just so ashamed!" Speaking from where he was lying on the couch, the husband said, "You ought to be ashamed! Those two worthless brothers of yours never give us a cent!"

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And finally, two fellows were fishing in a boat under a bridge. As a funeral procession passed over, one fellow stood up, took off his cap, and bowed his head. After the procession passed he returned to his fishing. The other guy said to him, "That was a nice thing to do. Did you know them?" The first guy replied, "Sure did. She died day before yesterday. I was married to her for 50 years!"

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In God We Trust

...E pluribus unum was approved for use on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782. What many do not know is that the other motto that appears on U.S. coins and currency, In God We Trust, was not officially approved by Congress until 1956. The Congressional Record of that year reads: "At the present time the United States has no national motto. The committee deems it most appropriate that In God We Trust be so designated as United States national motto." Why 1956? Probably because the nation was beset at that time by fears of "Godless communism."

...Although the origins of the phrase are obscure, some think it stems from one of the lesser-known verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which includes this line: And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'

...The motto first appeared on U.S. coins during the Civil War, when Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase sent this instruction to the director of the U.S. Mint: "Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in his defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition."

...The use of In God We Trust on American money has been the subject of debate, even before the 1956 act of Congress declaring it the national motto. Some have thought it violates the separation of church and state.

...Theodore Roosevelt opposed it. Ah, but his opposition was for a quite different reason: He thought it a sacrilege to inscribe the name of God on something so common as money!

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Do You Remember?

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.....I thought this item from the May/June Upper Room may speak to those of you parents still trying to get used to your kids being off in college. It's by Susi Lockard.

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.....When my children were infants and I rocked them to sleep, I sang to them and prayed for them. I remember holding my 14-month-old son and praying for his future relationships with his roommates, his friends, his wife. For years, I came back to the same prayer. I know I must have wearied the Lord with my prayers; but Matthew 7:7 tells us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking.

.....When my son went off to college, I couldn't wait to hear about his roommate. "Well, Mom, he is a recovering drug addict. He was sent here for a year of rehabilitation and is studying art, taking part in sports, and trying to re-enter normal life."

.....I felt as if God had let me down, and my disappointment came through. "I don't understand. I have prayed for 18 years for you to have a good roommate who would have a good influence in your life.

.....My son, wiser than I, answered, "Maybe his mother was praying the same prayer." My son knew that he had been nurtured all his life and now had a chance to nurture a young man with serious problems.

.....God answers our prayers from wisdom greater than ours. I thought that my son needed a strong Christian friend; God knew that my son needed to be a strong Christian friend.

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Do You Grumble?

.....A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing.
.....One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, "Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?"
....."Why, of course," he replied. "He hears us every time we pray."
.....She paused on this a moment, and asked, "Does he hear everything we say the rest of the time?"
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Commentary: OUCH!

Advantages of Joining Our Choir

1. You never have to worry about what to wear.
2. You have excellent seats and are assured a reserved seat for Christmas and Easter.
3. From your advantageous seat, you can smile at, gawk at, ignore and otherwise enjoy the rest of the people in the congregation.
4. The pastor is almost always looking the other way.
4a. You can fantasize about a target painted on pastor's bald head, and shooting spitwads at the bullseye.
5. You're in a wonderful spot to see visitors and new members.
6. and truly best: You're a leader in the worship experience.

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How to Be a Friend

.....Two friends were once walking through the desert, but at some point during the journey, they fell into an argument, and one friend slapped the other in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face.

.....They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: Today my best friend saved my life.

.....The friend who slapped, and then saved his best friend asked, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone. Why?"

.....The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand,
and to carve your blessings in stone.

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A Grief Observed

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I just haven't been feeling well for awhile. Though there may be other issues at hand, I've realized that much of it is a time of passing through grief.Of course, we've faced some deaths that have made us sad as a community and as a church. And then, serious illnesses among friends and church family distress us. That's all grief in a very real way. Those things grieve us because they indicate change that has come, or change that may be coming. It all has to do with relationships, and change.The deep grief I've been feeling is not as final or big as the griefs of death or grave illness. But it does have to do with relationships and changes in them. When a relationship deepens, we feel a lot of joy. But when we feel a cooling, a distancing in a relationship, that's painful. It, too, is real grief. My problem is, I feel the coolness, the distance, but I'm having a hard time coming up with the reasons for the change. And so, there is grief. Five particular relationships have seemed broken. Thankfully, one was cleared up as we tracked down the source of misunderstanding. But four still seem strained, so the heart aches.Perhaps this has happened to you as well. I don't know how you dealt/deal with it, but I'm working at reminding myself: There are only two eyes in whose gaze I long to see approval, acceptance, and friendship ... and they are not in any human's head! Only in the loving gaze of Jesus Christ will I find what I truly need and long for. I will accept friendship as temporal, ephemeral, as "good for as long as it lasts," but for the long term, I know it is in Christ Alone that I live. And in Him is joy, and not grief.

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