Heavenguard

Just to share with everyone: NewDirection.ca - Home New Direction is a Christian ministry that is geared for people with questions and problems with (surrounding) their sexual identity. A speaker, Brian, (himself gay) came to my workplace (a college) to give a talk, and I thought he was just absolutely wonderful. I'd suggest looking into resources they may have, or even to ask them questions for help on how to handle situations and the like.

Just in case anyone had the idea that I can do what my froggy friend in my avatar is doing... Yes, I can. Well, I could. If I had no spine.

Although I personally wouldn't advise it, I just want to point out that people who play poker professionally do have to work hard at it. It's psychologically and mentally demanding. It is not a willy-nilly, simple and mindless throw away of money like on a weekend trip to the casino or on lottery tickets. While chance does have some play in it, luck alone will not let you win. It requires skill, strategy, and intelligence. Gambling, to me, is like drinking. It's alright if you're in control. I know this is not an LDS POV at all, but I just wanted to bring another view out. God told us to not be foolish with our money, to not worship other things (like wealth), or be greedy. You can enjoy gambling without those things. If instead of using $20 to watch a movie in the evening, but instead use it to buy into a poker game at a friend's house, then $20 is the price I paid for an evening's entertainment. The problem with gambling comes when one spends more than they are able to allot to "entertainment", or if they become so consumed by the "thrill" of it that it overtakes other things in life. I am aware of the destructiveness of this, one of my friends had a gambling problem and ended up "borrowing" money from a friend in order to keep going, and would continue through the night without sleep to play online. The motto "know your limit, play within it" comes to mind. Anything can become addictive and overshadow life and become destructive, even work, volunteering hobbies, collections, anything. I just think we should all be responsible for ourselves. For one to win in sports (professional poker is considered a sport), eveyone else has to lose. Just making a statement.

IF you do this, which I am strongly, strongly suggesting you not do (at least set it so it only flags or filters certain thing, I am so very vehemently against logging "everything"), that you discuss it with your kids PRIOR to setting it - not just with your ex-wife. Then tell them why, and tell them about the dangers of the Internet. DON'T betray your children's trust, please! I beg this of you for both their sake and yours! Teach your children, show and share with your children. Trust in them and the relationship you have between you. Do not invade their privacy, they WILL resent you for it, and you will have broken their trust in you. After you've broken their trust, it will be so hard for you to gain it back, and then from that point, any teaching you give will fall on deaf and rebellious ears. If the situation arises that your children do indeed visit questionable sites, or have less-than-inspiring conversations, and you bring up your "evidence" in logs and then proceed to confront them, what do you think will happen? It is so much better (in terms of personal trust and its betrayal, but still setting boundaries) to set up filters and blockers on the front end, that prevents the searching and loading of "bad" websites. It is up-front and not secretive, known to them to be for their own protection (even if they think you're being too strict), and it stops them beforehand, rather than you finding out about it after the fact. Trust me, a kid remembers, and it's difficult to recover from a sense betrayal, and the idea that a parent failed you personally - I am attesting to this personally from my own experience. My relationship with my mom is "civil", but if someone asked me if I loved her, I honestly don't know what might be the answer. And I'm not alienated from my mother, I live at home. And it's not as though I want to have a difficult relationship with her, I just can't get past how she still is, the things and way she thinks, even if her intentions are "good". Your kids already come from a "broken home", please don't set up the situation where they may lose their trust in their father! This is so much more than calling your children back into the house to put on a helmet, there is no issue of trust there.

It depends on how often you do laundry, or laundry needs to get done. It happens once a week in my house. So I take that week, and a little extra, so each week I can have clean clothes, and a few extra for a bit of variety, for each season. I think that is a sufficient amount of clothing. Someone I know does the same, except his cycle is two weeks, so he has enough of everything he needs for two weeks. My aunt's tenant used to change her kids out of their clothes for anything that may have been dropped or spilled on them, no matter how minor. With two young sons, she ended up doing laundry several times every day. Obviously, that is overkill, but if you allow your kids to just be kids, and granted something isn't a huge spill, or going to stain permanently, just let them be in their clothes till the end of the day.

I met my gentleman friend of a few weeks on a joint (2 churches) retreat when I overheard my best friend laugh at him for sharing a room with another of our friend (he snores like a train wreck), and I went over and offered him earplugs. I feel, as a non-LDS, that there's a lot of stigma around single men and women in their late 20s and on. I feel like this is very unfortunate, for I myself am only 22, while my perfectly wonderful gentleman friend is 31. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being older than 25 and single! If I'd thought so, I probably wouldn't have my gentleman now.

Trust me, your son wants your support more than your worry. (Not to say you're not supporting him, but the worry will overshadow it.) When I first expressed that I wanted to join the military, my mom shouted, screamed, cried, accused me of all sorts of unkind things (ie I was doing it because I didn't care about her, or doing it purposefully to spite her). But it was important to me. And although she said these things because "army" immediately raised red flags in her head about war and ... shall we say, high probability for workplace injury... causing her fear and worry, all I saw was her selfishness in refusing to support me. (I am not in the army.) I am NOT calling you selfish. But my point is your worry, if seen by him, will be what he sees and thinks about of when he thinks of you on the other side, and you don't want that. You need him to have a strong and confident mind, undivided, not having to worry about you back home. And so you need to show him that you are strong, confident in him, and undivided in your support for him.

I'd also like to ask how you feel that would have been different (in experience) against adopting younger children. I think about that, adopting older children (... when I'm older myself).

I just took a quick look. I think that's great, jmaxwilson! As a non-LDS that had in mind to learn about the Church, I think that's really fantastic.

I do the breath test every day I leave my house, while still on my driveway, when it starts to get chilly. When it's chilly enough to see my breath, I decide that fall is over.

Your kids may be too young to do their own laundry, but perhaps not too young to help with it. Jon and Kate plus 8 has demonstrated that a 3 year old can get involved in folding and sorting.

Helmets will help for some, but not all injuries. That is true of any and all helmets. Someone I know got a concussion through a helmet, I'm sure it would have been worse without one. Alls I know is I wore a helmet when I went snowboarding this season (first time, learning), and my friend who's a seasoned vet who does jumps and tricks also wears a helmet.

Today's sermon was on Proverbs 31, the wife of noble character. I think it's a good perspective for a man to have in looking for his wife. I was wondering if there was something in the Bible that similarly describes the character of a good husband? (Besides, husbands love your wives, do not exacerbate your children.)

I don't know about that, bytebear. True, the Christian God is also the God of the Old Testament, however the Christian (LDS inclusive) understanding of God is also different than the Jewish understanding of God. In that way, the God we know is a different God than they know. In the same way, the LDS understanding of God and Jesus is different than the non-LDS Christian understandings of God and Jesus. It's not that non-LDS Christians are saying that LDS believe in another existence of a person, or another person altogether, but that how you know them and how we know them are different. It's like saying (for example), So-and-so is a different man when he's at work and when he's with his friends. The same person or being is being referenced, but the understandings or ways in which we know him is different. The Muslims believe in the God of Abraham, but he is vastly different than the God that you know.

So I suppose it's like the prodigal son, then. I just didn't think it to be so before because in my mind, with the premise of the pre-mortal existence, then we would already be God's sons (and daughters), and would be a returning to Him, rather than being adopted, which is "you didn't belong to me before, but now you do".

Hello all, I was thinking about how God is the father of our spirit-selves in the pre-mortal existence, and that we are all the children of God. Then I realized that what Paul says about us being adopted by God through Jesus doesn't make sense (at least to me) under that assumption. So I considered that this adoption (or adoption in this context) probably means something else, and not the "how" in how we become God's children. With that in mind, could I ask what adoption means?

Obama misunderestimated the truth of those facts

Everyone's either very polite, or just Canadian :)

There's nothing wrong with being attracted to a certain type. It would only be wrong if you became exclusive or racist about it, saying you would never date or marry someone who wasn't Asian. And yes, you can be racist against your own ethnic race/culture! I've seen it, people who grow up outside of their ethnic culture, or just don't like it and try their darndest to identify with another group.

Sorry, but I have to become YouTube's advocate here. YouTube has never claimed itself to be family friendly, only that it's purpose excludes pornography and explicit stuff. There's a difference between a movie that's Rated R and one rated X, but there's still a difference between the movie rated R and G (or even PG). (And, of course, society at large's definition of explicit is different than the LDS one too.) YouTube is also not responsible for its content (except for the ones where they contact people to make specific videos). It is user-generated content, the responsibility resides with the user. YouTube is just the medium through which you receive the content. That's the same as being mad at Microsoft because you saw inappropriate content through their IE browser, and blaming IE for not having filters to block that content, or a way to prevent other users from uploading such things through it. YouTube is only responsible at the point where they are informed about specific incidences of inappropriate content and fail to remove them in a timely manner. You have to keep in mind millions of videos are added daily - it's a slow process. There isn't a computer in the world smart enough yet to be able to watch a video and decipher whether or not it's appropriate. You know how when you sign up for an account somewhere, and you're told to enter the jumbled letters in the picture to prevent bots from creating spam accounts? A computer can't yet decipher a still image - imagine a moving video. It's just technologically so far beyond our grasp. I understand your frustration, but it's not as though YouTube is making or condoning these videos. You're not so much angry at YouTube than the accessibility your brother has through it. Your brother either has to stay off the Internet entirely, or can only check his email/Facebook with you or someone else around (password protected).

I'm not LDS, I'm Protestant. Would I date a non-Christian? No. Would I date a LDS member? Also no. The reason for both is the same: differences in beliefs. (Although the former stronger than the latter.) More so for non-Christians, but say if faith is at the centre of my life, and I want to share that life with someone, there's a lot of that life you can't share with that someone if they don't understand. That someone might try really hard to, but he or she won't be able to unless he or she also shares your same beliefs and values. If two people strive for different things in life, how do you share it? Dating is (or should be) about marrying. If you're not going to marry someone, why are you dating them? It's unfair to yourself, and much more so, the other person. Heartbreak is not a fun game, why would you willingly and willfully do that to yourself, and someone that you care about? It's masochistic for yourself, and completely selfish for the other. Then you have to think about how you raise your kids too (if you do marry). Now, that's just my opinion (which seems to be greatly shared here, not necessarily so in today's Protestant youth... Sigh). Some people do well in a "mixed faith" marriage. But for the people who do well, imagine how much richer it could be!

The one word that's been repeated here that really stands out to me is "irreverent". It also struck me when I read "It is a time of joy, but a time of quiet joy." and "Loud talking and loud laughter are not fitting in the house of the Lord." (Edit: not in this thread, but in a book - Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple.) David danced in joy before the Lord wearing priestly robes. There was shouting, tambourines, lyres and trumpets. In the OT, people used cymbals, rattles and tambourines. Psalm 98 calls us to "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn - shout for joy before the Lord, the King." Was David an irreverent or disrespectful man (concerning God)? I'd rather say that David was a man who celebrated in, with, and for God. I dare say he also had a great deal of respect for God. Why can't we have joyful, celebretous expressions while still respecting God? Although often appropriately expressed in such a way, respect or reverence isn't necessarily quietness. That is, one is not necessarily being irreverent by using such expressions. Don't get my wrong, I love hymns; I grew up with a lot of Catholic influence. They're still my favourite songs. Hymns and CCMs are both music, yes, but they serve different purposes. I think there should be a use of both, but to call CCM irreverent ... Well, to put an analogy to it, it's like (to me) saying that it is disrespectful to throw a surprise party (a celebration) for your parents.

Keep in touch with her, but don't hope that she will change her mind. If you keep hoping for it, your relationship will be unbalanced and unfair. She's made clear to you what she wants - if you truly respect her, you'll stay within those boundaries. It's also unfair to yourself, because although you say you'll keep an eye out for another girl, your heart will never be ready for another girl if it's still waiting for this American Missionary girl. Personal observation/anecdote: It is not romantic from anyone's POV for a man to continue to dote on a girl after having told him 'no'. I've seen it. The girl, and everyone around, would really rather the guy move on - for his sake.

Wait... What??? Why do employers get to look at your credit at all?? Is this a common practise in the US? (Canadian here.) This makes zero sense to me. An employer pays someone to work. What people do with that money afterwards is hardly their business.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean (by "moves"). I think the answer (about asking a girl how she feels about a guy) would depend on what sort of relationship has developed thus far. If it happens too early, it's either scares-ville (moving too fast) or turn-off-ville (seems too needy) for the girl. If this fellow were to ask me something like that now, I'd still feel it'd be a little bit premature (by perhaps a few weeks), but I wouldn't run from it. I think asking that sort of question demonstrates to me that someone is serious about relationships (as opposed to looking to date just for fun), but is cautious, or at least level-headed, enough to not just run into something headlong - which is smart. Plus it shows the other's desire to be with me, willingness to understand my needs, and it open up a discussion about the relationship to come. I would actually absolutely love for the guy to ask me something like that.