Irishcolleen

I think Anatess just wants to show that it is ok to care for all people even if you don't like their lifestyle. Sin is hard to overcome. We all have sins we struggle with. Even so God loves us enough that He gave His Son to atone for our sins. Love wins more people to Christ than scorn.

My mom was suddenly thrown into the workforce after twenty years of being a homemaker when my father became disabled. She only had a high school education, so she started as low as a person could start in the company she got a job with. She wasn't sure she could support the family. Her boss was gay, but in the closet. His boyfriend threw a party for him and invited his coworkers. This amounted to a "surprise coming out party". All of the coworkers except my mom treated him poorly, made fun of him behind his back, gossiped about him, etc... Mom continued to treat him with respect and as a friend. Moms boss was promoted frequently. Whenever he was promoted he gave my mom a promotion, too. When the positions required more training he made sure the company paid to train my mom. She is now a business analyst and the only one without a masters degree in her department. She loves her work, is very good at it and she is looking forward to a good retirement. This would not have been possible if her boss hadn't taken such good care of Mom. Mutual respect brings blessings, even when you don't agree with a persons lifestyle. Mom cared for Steve in a small way- just by treating him like he was a human and he repaid her by giving her a future. We will always be so grateful to him.

They will never be able to pay all the costs. There have been many law suits. I miss how pretty our river used to be. The worst part is that they used soil they knew was contaminated for fill around the houses. There are some companies that are responsible. I have a friend who is an engineer at a power company. She is involved in decommissioning old nuclear plants. She has helped me understand real vs. perceived risks of nuclear power. It is a clean, efficient way to provide electricity. It just needs to done in a responsible way. People know so much more than they did before about radiation. I collect glass and one of my favorite pieces is a green water bottle that glows under a black light because uranium is embedded in the glass. We would never think of putting uranium in food storage items now, but it was common in the 1930-1950's. My friend the engineer says the glass is stable enough to be in the house, but I'm not going to serve water in it!

Preach it!!! I agree! We don't need to be 100% accessible. I don't need to answer the phone in the middle of whatever I am doing just because it rings.

The town adjacent to us had a company, Kerr McGee, that dumped thorium. The thorium contaminated soil was used for fill around home foundations. there were clusters of aplastic anemia and blood/lymphatic cancers around the site. Several decades later we are still dealing with the effects. The EPA has had to "remake" the river running through several towns because of the spread of the thorium laced soil. The water is diverted into pipes and the river bed is scraped to remove contaminated soil and rocks. Many homes have had to be lifted off the foundation to remove the soil. I am a supporter of nuclear power, but there needs to be a way to ensure the providers are meticulous about safety and to make sure they have good integrity.

I screen calls, too. Despite being on the "do-not-call" list some calls still get through. people who want to talk will leave a message. If you are a person I like or need to talk to frequently, or occasionally urgently (like my dad's dr.s) I will put your number into my contact list so your name will be announced with the call.

I think the daddy's girl thing at 2 is typical and a very good thing. The love and adoration a little girl gets from her father will go a long way in preventing problems in teen and adult years. The time she insists on spending with him will teach her that she is worthy of love, beautiful, and it will show her what kind of treatment to demand from a future spouse. A girl with a close relationship with her father is not likely to get pregnant as a teen, less likely to marry an abuser, etc...

Out of curiosity what would happen if a prophet gave advice that conflicted with past prophets or teachings? For instance, how would the church respond if the prophet said to allow gay sealings or to allow polygamy again? I know these are big "what if's" and not likely to happen. I am just curious as to how LDS members would handle such a situation.

We are pretty open with most things, finances, social media, etc... I had to draw the line at toolboxes. My DH will frequently have his tools in the attic where he is working on projects. I don't like going up to the attic as the drop down steps are right over the staircase and it's a long way down. Anyway, I would need tools when he wasn't home. So I just got my own tool box and tools. I don't like him messing with my tools. His tools are in the attic and sometimes he'll just go get MY needle noses. Argh!!!!! He doesn't understand that I like to keep my tool box for myself. I don't know why. I just feel that way. My daughter bought her first tool chest- an upright craftsman- last summer. She is already moving up to a bigger one. We like tools in our house.

Powerpoint can be dangerous in the hands of some people. We were taught you should use no font smaller than 30 and no more than 10 words a slide. I would need a motion sickness patch to look at the chart for more than a few seconds.

I found this chart to be interesting, but I'm not sure it is accurate. The guy who developed it says he is Mormon. Of course, just because he says he is a Mormon doesn't mean he is one who has complete understanding of LDS teachings. He has different charts based on who he is teaching. This one makes me dizzy. Links to other charts: Plan Of Salvation Charts By Cordell Vail The man's information and links to his testimony: Eugene Cordell Vail Sr. - LDS Church (Mormon) Handouts and Epistles to his family & friends

I guess you have to decide what success is. For example, we have a "Tiger Mom" family in our church. The kids are very gifted academically and musically, but they lack empathy, social skills and tend to be selfish. We have another family in church who had three boys that barely got out of high school. One ended up in the military, two are in blue collar jobs. All three love their families, stayed at their father's side as he passed away and take good care of their mother. They would move mountains to help others. I consider the the kids from the second family to be successful and the kids from the first family to be trained monkeys. I think we need to evaluate what success is. Is it academic and economic? Is it spiritual and emotional? In an ideal world I think it would be balanced.

Just being together. We still like holding hands after 21 years :)

I am so sorry. A dog's love is so special and unconditional. I pray that God will bring you peace and healing. Again, as a dog-mommy myself, I am so sorry.

I like Vort's explanation. Several years ago we had a close friend kill himself. It was devastating- still is. He had so much emotional pain but it still wasn't right. Every time I see his kids struggle or have a big accomplishment I think he should have been there. My husband still has his cell phone number in his phone. I know he will have to answer to the Lord on why he threw part of his life away. However, God is amazing. He can give beauty for ashes (Isa 61:3). This the first time many of the teens (his daughter was in jr. high) had serious crisis of faith. They processed it and became stronger in faith and less shallow- made faith their own not just what their parents believed. The man's wife became bolder, she had been way too timid. She needed to become bolder as she has three kids to raise alone. As a church, we learned to be more open with each other emotionally. We would so much like to have our friend with us today. We know we will be with him someday. But, we are grateful for the gifts God gave even in this horrible event.

Where I live they built a tunnel so deep they call it "Deep Tunnel". We have no mountains or hills to tunnel through. When they first built it people thought it was a bomb shelter for the entire city, but it's just to drain storm water out of the storm sewers. Here's a bonus fact: We have the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway (highway). You cannot get to O'hare or Elgin on this expressway. Oh! Here's one more bonus fact- We had a river leak out through the bottom. It flooded the downtown area- many of the big skyscrapers had 4 stories of water in the basement but there was no water on the streets and no rain or snow melt. A contractor dug to deep, went through the river bed and into a utility/old underground coal train tunnel which filled the tunnels and eventually the basements with water.

I wonder if that means something is wrong with my mom's...

Keurig warning: If you brew hot cocoa in a Keurig that has been used for coffee a coffee flavor will linger. Pretty disgusting for those of us who cannot stand the taste of coffee! (Not a Mormon and can't stand coffee)

There is a great deal of overlap. I am Baptist (GARBC) and I consider myself Fundamentalist in terms of doctrine but Evangelical in terms of outreach & attitude. As my dear friends and I frequently say, "We put the fun in fundamentalism."

You need to be able to see each other in many different situations. Have you made him angry and seen his reaction? I even advised my daughter to irritate her boyfriend so she could see his angry reaction. Have you seen how he treats his mother and sisters? Have you seen how his father treats his mother and sisters? Do you know how he feels about finances? About sex? How does he handle disappointment or stress? You need to see him in these situations- not just ask him how he handles them.

We use a fake tree because I worry about fires in real trees. I also don't like vacuuming up needles for the next 3 months If you have wood or laminate floors there is the worry about spilling water on the floor when a real tree is watered. I do love the scent of a real tree, but I can get that from a candle.

You definitely don't kick them out of churches. But, when you have lived in a marginal neighborhood as long as we have (hubby is bi-vocational pastor) you get to know who is just having a hard time vs. who is an addict or unstable. If someone is an addict or unstable a woman or children should not reach out to them without having an adult man with them. Unfortunatley, it's just a reality of life in a city.

oops, I didn't know it posted... next post has my thoughts. :)

We live near Chicago. If we gave money to every pan-handler we saw we'd be broke. Sometimes, if we are near a fast-food place we will buy them a meal. But, where we are we have to be careful. Many of the homeless are addicts or severely mentally ill and violence directed towards people trying to help is not unheard of. Chicago is a fairly safe city, but there are gangs, drugs, shootings, etc... are in many areas including my neighborhood. We are looking forward to our move to Utah this summer! Not that Utah is problem free, but I don't think I'll have drug dealing neighbors right out my back door anymore.

I have two homemade pumpkin pies in the oven even as we speak. Why on earth do most recipes say to cover the pie crust after 15 minutes of baking??? That usually results in pumpkin pie filling sloshing all over the place and in burned hands. It is so much easier to covet the crust and remove the foil near the end of the baking time.