theSQUIDSTER

Ambivaguoudextrousuchus... ... Related to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koolasuchus .. a modern cousin, perhaps..

As anatess pointed out, this is INDEED a comeback. It could be especially effective if you can say these words in a monotone Ben Stein type of voice.

Psychoses make all sorts of unthinkable things possible. If you've never been there yourself or seen this in an otherwise previously stable individual that you know well, you may just have to take anatess' and others word on this. Brain chemistry is an extremely nebulous thing! Of course it's unthinkable to forget our children or anyone we love.. Or hopefully it is for most if us.. But when your mind is genuinely malfunctioning.. you're simply not yourself ..

Yes, and I said I was sorry for that.. But then you had to go and kick my butt in that sparring match we had at the Roman Colliseum.. So now I'm going back to calling you Bruce.

I think "dress to impress" has its origins in "dress to oppress." ... or maybe the other way around.. But I digress..

The verse you are talking about is this one: But ye are a achosen generation, a broyal cpriesthood, an dholy enation, a fpeculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of gdarknessinto his marvellous hlight: (1 Peter 2:9) The teaching of a "universal priesthood" became popular during the Protestant reformation, most particularly through the writings of Martin Luther. More about that here ---> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_priesthood It could be referred to as THE central tenet of Protestantism .. though not all who considered themselves Protestant Christians agree on this... One very interesting exception was Roger Williams who came to this conclusion about priesthood authority: "There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."[19] More on Roger Williams here --- >> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams

.. See next post ..

I thought maybe we'd finally seen the real you... So you're saying you're NOT that VITAS guy? What about your avatar..? She looks like an identical twin to that VITAS guy...

Over the course of my life I've owned many exotic animals... mostly of the reptilian or arachnid/arthropod variety. As I grow older I find that I want to "own" animals less and less and just observe them more and more. As a kid I used to collect EVERYTHING... bring it home and keep it. Even some of my adult years have had these phases of wanting to own or posses.... but for the most part I've been moving more and more away from that. These days I get a much bigger thrill at being able to observe an animal in it's natural habitat and get a few snapshots of it. Admittedly, I still love to hold and capture animals, (again, mostly reptiles and arthropods) and pose them for photos before releasing them. Perhaps I'm moving toward a time when all I will take will be "in situ" photos... completely hands-off. I guess only time will tell.

Try not to hate me for this, but if there's an implied question in there, then my answer to you would be: " "

With every rising of the full earth (every 30 days or so?) he transforms into a man... then wakes up later in some lunar ditch not knowing how he got there and why he's dressed like John Gotti "Junior"...

I was going to say that ACDC is one of my guilty pleasures upon occasion... But there's really only one ACDC for me and it's with Brian ... NOT Bon ... and probably not Axl...

Gene Simmons... Richard Simmons... Brian Johnson... Axl Rose... ...the world is just becoming too-two-2 confusing-a-place with all these transpositions... transvestitures... trocodarians..... ... I feel like I'm going over the edge... or gaga... or... or. or...

I like this. PC, I always love to read your posts. I don't know that the individual doctrines of our denominations are necessarily changing/evolving so much as WE are changing one toward another. I think the Lord is softening each of our hearts and helping us to see one another more as brothers and sisters in Him. Our doctrines and certainly our individual understandings vary ... but is it not in all of our best interests to see what/Who we all cherish most? Even our Lord. There is so much that we still don't know about Him. But I think enough of us know ENOUGH to say that He IS our Lord and the Lord for each of us, despite our individual weaknesses and failings. We have a choice in how we treat each other. We can focus on doctrinal differences, individual short-comings and the like. Or we can choose to magnify the things where we agree and make that our foundation rather than our differences. Once we build that positive foundation, then we can work toward understanding our differences in a more constructive and edifying way, with less intent to harm, discredit and more intent to become ONE even as He commanded. For me, the Lord's commandment to become one doesn't just apply to my brothers and sisters who are LDS, but to EVERY brother and sister. I'm still striving to understand more fully what that means and how to do it... but to my brothers and sisters who already have a belief and faith in the Lord, we're so much closer to being one than my brothers and sisters who have no understanding or belief in our Savior.

In President Snow's quote " As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be. " we are reminded of the importance of eternal progression. In my understanding, the point of contention for many/most Christians who consider themselves orthodox is that God cannot have ever been a man like us, He has ALWAYS been God. God is unchanging. He would never debase himself or remotely be like us. This is an absolute for them and, understandably, they see anything else as heresy. Seems pretty clear-cut, right? But things get kind of muddy when you continue along this train of thought... ok ... so then who was JESUS? Was He God? Was He always God? Would it not also be blasphemy to then say that "Jesus (God) increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man"? (Luke 2:52) How could a God deign to do that when He is supposedly already at the pinnacle of everything? ... The idea that God would come down and be with man, live like man, even appear to die like man... What could be more disrespectful and blasphemous than that? Interesting thing is, in the Book of Mormon we have a story of a man who preached such a doctrine many years BEFORE the birth of Christ. His name was Abinadi. He preached to the court of the wicked King Noah and his priests who taught (or claimed to teach) the Law of Moses. Abinadi preached that God would indeed descend from above and come to live with man and almost be like man and save man from their sins, but not IN their sins. They burned him to death, supposedly for that doctrine. Or that was their official reason. So, does it debase God to be "like" us at some point in time? Does it diminish Him to be with us in the flesh? To be subject to the flesh? If this is a problem, maybe we need to become Muslims... or some other religion... because if we call ourselves "Christians," don't we believe that God would and DID indeed descend from His throne to be with us and to love us and die for us...? And how would that diminsh Him? Do we speak of his earthly life to diminish Him? Or to revere and marvel at who He was and what He did and what He taught us? Note, I haven't gotten into anything about the Trinitarian doctrine that some claim... whether Jesus and the Father were the same individual or not... but either way I think the same case can be made...? If a life on earth didn't debase Jesus, then how could a life on this or some other earth debase the Father or make Him somehow less our God? Didn't Jesus say He only ever came to do "what He seeth the Father do?" (John 5:19)

first signs of sunrise filling the empty heart the empty tomb

Teenage one-on-one dating is stupid... or at least unwise. Better in "group-dates" where they can all be together and socialize without as much potential awkwardness and other pitfalls. Kids don't need to be making strong attachments that might cloud their judgement and hugely impact their future/potential in negative ways. Whether that means kissing or not, or HOW to kiss and how not to kiss.... opinions vary ... Hugs I think are generally safe so long as they're the traditional friendship hugs, standing-up hugs... anything else is probably not a friendship hug if there's lounging around or wandering hands also in play.

I was kinda wondering if this great deal might just actually be a load of bullpucky ..

I'd like to second what TFP said. The Spirit communicates with us on some core level.. perhaps directly to OUR spirit. How we react can be very different depending upon a whole host of things. It makes sense to me that the Spirit doesn't change.. However, for good or for ill, WE DO change over time. Hopefully we're heeding the promptings, which, if we do, will soften our hearts more and more, increase our love and understanding, and bring us ever closer to the Father and the Son. When we're able to see Them as They truly are it will be because we have become like them. Didn't our first prophet of this dispensation say as much? I won't presume to speak for the rest of you, but I feel no doubt about the Lord influencing my life for the better, in spite of the fact that I don't always choose the better or best. I have had times in my life when I'm absolutely certain the Spirit was prompting me or present. Much more often, however, my own weaknesses and frailties interfere with the things the Spirit is trying to teach me. But, because I'm certain the Lord has never forgotten me, I must continue to practice remembering Him and reaching for Him despite any winds and waves which surround me. When I was a younger man I spent more of my time worried about whether I was hearing and understanding the Spirit correctly... The question of discernment was almost ever-present in my mind. I was hesitant because I was afraid of making a mistake or taking a step in the wrong direction. But as I've gotten older I find myself focusing much less on the question of "is this really the Lord speaking to me?" and more, what would the Lord have me do.. and am I getting off course... and how can I do better. For me, revelation works better if I'm making an effort to move in the direction I believe the Lord is prompting me to go rather than waiting for 100% certainty before doing anything.. This type of revelation which happens while I'm on the move is most especially applicable to my stewardships and how the Lord desires for me to serve others. The voice of the Lord tends to become clearer as I engage in activities which focus outward in a sincere effort to love and serve others.. and tends to become harder to hear and understand the more I focus inward with greater preoccupation upon myself.

Needle, I've pondered over this a lot today. I can't seem to let go of it. I love your idea of scheduling a regular recurring time for HT/VT visits. I've seen instances where this kind of arrangement can be very successful. I'm sorry if I left you with any impression that I might be shooting down your ideas expressed to Sunday. I started, intending to address mostly your post but then got thinking about Sunday's OP. Since I don't know the specifics and since it's not my stewardship, I can't really presume to know finally what Sunday needs to do. You've also said as much. Not our job ultimately, but the Spirit's to do the whispering to her. (Sunday, I have confidence in you that you'll do whatever the Spirit prompts you to do. May the Lord bless you in your sincere efforts. ) I guess there are a couple things that keep lingering in my mind about this topic. First, "Mormon Guilt." I believe I understand at least in part of what is meant by this... but I also worry that it could be easily misunderstood. I guess some of my questions would be, if I'm feeling guilty about something, is it the Spirit showing me my inadequacies or is it me listening to the adversary that I'm not good enough and should beat myself up and make myself miserable over this...? I guess my general thoughts regarding these are that one doesn't preclude the other... both can and do usually happen.. if not simultaneously, at least in very close "proximity" to each other. If the Spirit were trying to gently "prick" our conscience, why wouldn't Satan then also try to weasel in and influence us to misunderstand, ignore, and/or blame ourselves instead of turning again to our Father in humility and asking for forgiveness and for the strength to continue and learn from our weakness..? I guess the biggest thing that matters is what we choose to ponder and dwell upon. If we continue in our thoughts of "I'm not good enough" to the exclusion of other things, we will most probably conclude that it's all just too much, too difficult, too painful, etc. and that we can't continue because it's too hard to keep going. I see Satan as trying to take something that's true but twist it to his own ends and make us fixate on one aspect instead of seeing the whole picture.... Of course we're not good enough, only One ever was and, thankfully, He has overcome Satan and the world. If we move as quickly as we can through the personal inadequacies phase and focus on the Savior and put our energy into what He would have us do and become, then that first bit of "guilt" is good and for our benefit... otherwise it's more and more debilitating the longer we linger there. We acknowledge our own nothingness but quickly move on from there... or, if we feel stuck there we plead with the Lord for His mercy and then try to proceed in faith and to the best of our knowledge and abilities, hoping and trusting that He'll inspire, strengthen and guide us along the way and prick us again if we begin to loose our focus or start moving away from where we need to be. The other thing I've been pondering is the awesome power of kindness and love. There is an immense power to do good in HT/VT. I've seen that so often in my life and people's lives around me that it's undeniable for me. Ideally, it seems like it would be much better if we completely and spontaneously visited, loved and watched-out for each other without ever having to be assigned and called to do so. Of course that would be better... but then if we were all or even mostly at that place wouldn't we have been taken up like the city of Enoch? That obviously hasn't happened so we still have some growing to do to become more like that. Sometimes there are criticisms leveled against HT/VT and church callings pointing this out as a failing and even as a reason why the church can't be true because these sorts of things just lead to us being discouraged all the time that we never do enough. ..or, individually, that our sincerity should be questioned because we received a call to serve rather than just spontaneously chose to serve. Again, most of us are still not there yet, which is why we need the programs to help us grow and become more like we should be. How much HT/VT is enough? An occasional email or a card? Once a month visits? More than once a month visits/contact? There is no fast and one-size-fits-all answer to these and other related questions. But there is a KEY to all service and principles of the gospel and it's charity ... love. I've watched two great examples of this in my life: my mother and my wife. In the case of my mother, I've watched as my brother has shut her and the rest of the family out of his life. My mother has never given up hope for my brother. She continues to call his cell number and leave upbeat messages. He never answers her, and worse when he occasionally does and then realizes it's her calling, he quickly hangs up. But, interestingly, he's NEVER changed his cell phone number in over 20 years! He could have easily done that just as easily as most of us other family members have kind-of written him off, or said, "When he comes to himself and wants contact with us it will happen or he'll reach out..." But my mom just keeps calling even though he continues to ignore and break her heart a little bit more and more as time passes. In the case of my wife, she still talks to one SMI (seriously mentally ill) man who I home-taught a number of years ago but who I find it difficult to continue with now that he's moved away because he's such a black hole of need and paranoia and I just don't have the energy or sufficient encouragement for him that I think I should have. I do talk to him occasionally. I'll pick up the phone and chat with him... but more often than not it's my wife who chooses to do so much more than I do! She wasn't even in any calling that put her in a stewardship relating to him... yet she's the one who's consistently demonstrated to him AND to me how much she cares about this tortured and troubled brother. This is the true power of what we do. This is where the true power lies in touching one another's lives. I think when we contact and continue to reach out to somebody who we're called to HT/VT and then feel THIS love coming from us, then we're effective home and visiting teachers and true brothers and sisters to one another... otherwise we're still working on becoming that.... I am still trying to become that... so I look to these two great women in my life as examples of what I need to be and am striving to be more like.

I'm not sure if being a pest is an issue here. Didn't the OP say that this woman requested Sunday as her contact? That's actually a pretty good indicator that there is genuine interest and hopefully it's still there despite the unanswered emails and calls, which may just be due to life being hectic and busy.. Especially where kids are in the mix. Sunday, unless you're told by her that she no longer wants contact I think you should continue to reach out to her in kindness and faith as you've been doing. Perhaps it will become clearer over time, prayer, and pondering what you can do specifically to better serve and encourage her. I think it would be a mistake to do anything that might feel to her like an ultimatum from you.. i.e. Where she feels like you're trying to give her some kind of message like "either we visit once a month or we don't at all until you call me back and let me know that you're ready to stop avoiding me..." I'm not saying that you would actually SAY something like that to her... I'm just saying that if she felt like you dropped her then she might feel like that was your intention. with HT/VT there will be some whom we serve from afar with prayer, fasting, compassion and a desire to love them as much as they'll let us.

We're just about all related to kings and/or tribal warlords... and Abraham. Just follow a line on familysearch and go as far as you can. If it dead ends, then backtrack to the nearest ancestor and follow the other great grandparent's line. Keep going as far as you can and you'll hit nobility sooner or later. You may even be able to claim relationship to fictitious ancestors like Zeus or Gaia, mother of the earth... Even those are on some people's family trees and can be found on familysearch... Which can kinda make one wonder about the reliability of ancestral claims the further they go back.... I guess it's probably a good thing that a record is also being kept in heaven... My most famous ancestor, of whom I'm a direct descendant through my mother, (and historically fairly recent) was the great reformer Martin Luther. He and grandma "Kate" ( Katharina von Bora) were my 12th great grandparents.

You have a twelve-sided etchosketch living one shelf above your Komodo dragon?

This is not completely accurate. They don't shun computers or technology per se. But they have very strict teachings about what can be used and how. I work in the IT field and met a gentleman who worked for one of our tech support contacts who said he was an FLDS apostate.. Born and raised in Colorado City.. but recently excommunicated. He was well schooled in how to setup servers and fix PCs because, he claimed to have been a Network Admin who helped setup servers for the FLDS church network and for Warren Jeffs personally. He told me they are ok with technology in general but have extremely strict teachings .. No Tv, extremely limited/filtered Internet content and web access... So, no you probably wouldn't run into an FLDS person on a forum or meet one on Facebook.. It's my understanding that technology is used mostly for communication with other FLDS. This might be mostly for the leadership and not so much for the rank-and-file member.

This is not completely accurate. They don't shun computers or technology per se. But they have very strict teachings about what can be used and how. I work in the IT field and met a gentleman who worked for one of our tech support contacts who said he was an FLDS apostate.. Born and raised in Colorado City.. but recently excommunicated. He was well schooled in how to setup servers and fix PCs because, he claimed to have been a Network Admin who helped setup servers for the FLDS church network and for Warren Jeffs personally. He told me they are ok with technology in general but have extremely strict teachings .. No Tv, extremely limited/filtered Internet content and web access... So, no you probably wouldn't run into an FLDS person on a forum or meet one on Facebook.. It was my understanding that technology is used mostly for communication with other FLDS. This might be mostly for the leadership and not so much for the rank-and-file member.