Why I Believe
08 Nov 2010 11 Comments
*Warnings: In case you hadn’t figured it out from the title, this post is religious. And I’ll warn you now, not only is it religious, but it’s potentially controversially religious. I’m accepting right up from that there will almost certainly be people, both Non-Mormons and Mormons alike, who are angry and offended by this post. To them I say, you have that right. And I’m sorry that you chose to be offended rather than to just tell yourself that I’m crazy (because I have no problem with your thinking that I am, it really doesn’t bother me) but that is your right as well. I also want to make it clear that this post is about the gospel that I believe in and despite the fact that we may be members of the same church, we may be members of the same ward, we may sit next to each other in relief society, it’s probably not quite the same gospel that you believe in. That’s just the way it works. You have been warned.
On the first Sunday of each month members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter referred to as Mormon’s because it’s a lot easier to type) are encouraged to fast. In fasting we forgo two meals and/or go 24 hours without eating. (The purpose of this is to refocus on the spiritual rather than the physical but that really has nothing to do with this post so that’s all the detail you’ll get on it from me.) The sacrament meeting (Mormon version of mass) that coincides with this fast is called Fast and Testimony meeting and members of the ward (congregation) are encouraged to bear testimony (witness, to you born againers) to the rest of the ward.
In the Mormon church, just like in any other church, we’ve developed out own vernacular (you might have noticed that from the preceding paragraph) and commonly heard sayings. One of the most common of these, heard without fail (and usually several times) during Fast and Testimony meeting, is “I know the church is true.”
I work with a man, a doctor, who is at least nominally, Mormon. This man, after Fast and testimony meeting, likes to corner people in the ward who have born their testimonies and used that phrase, and ask them how they “know”. According to his reports their answers usually have something to do with some experience or collection of experiences that they’ve had and the feelings that accompanied those experiences. This is not sufficient evidence for this man, he wants scientific proof, he is a scientist after all. He wants studies and repeatable experiments, he wants something concrete and irrefutable. (As if there’s anything, even (especially) in science that’s irrefutable. There are still people who believe that the world is flat for heaven’s sake, and have “science” to back it up.)
Some might call this man a jerk, in all honesty I would be (and am) one of them (but for more than just that reason) but in one thing I do agree with him; I hate the line ” I know this church is true.”
I’m not sure that there is anyone of my acquaintance, and that includes at least two general authorities, who can really say that they know. (Alma 32:17&18…If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe. Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.) And I would be willing to bet that there is no one in my ward who has received inspiration sufficient to know that the church is true. I don’t believe that I know anyone who has been visited by the Lord and to my mind that’s about the only way that you can know.
I tend to be a pretty literal person. I don’t mind a metaphor or a simile here or there as long as it’s clear you’re talking in metaphor or simile. I don’t even have a problem with exaggeration provided we know you’re exaggerating. But the people who get up in Fast and Testimony meeting are not using literary devices, they may be (and probably are, I think) giving that particular line more or less by rote and meaning that they believe, without thinking about what it actually means, and that’s fine, I get that, we all do that kind of thing here and there, and I’m not going to corner you after the meeting and grill you about your precise meaning. (Or maybe they do really know, or think they know which is fine too, it’s really none of my business.) I’m just not going to say it myself.
What I am going to say is that I believe.
I believe in a God who loves me and wants what’s best for me because I am his daughter. I believe in justice and I believe in mercy, and so I believe that that God has a Son who met the demands of both because I can’t. I believe that I am a member of a church that makes me a better person, a church that teaches me to love and to accept everyone, but that makes the distinction between accepting and loving the person and accepting and loving their sin. I believe in good and I believe in evil and I believe that there’s a difference. And I believe that that difference matters. And because I believe that difference matters, I believe in a God who offers second and third and fourth… chances, a God who offers those chances not only in this life but in the next as well. And I believe that the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught me all those things and that it teaches me to be the best version of myself.
I believe all these things because I choose to.
I make that choice full acknowledging that I could be dead wrong.
It’s possible that there is nothing more than this life and that when I die it’s all over. In that case I don’t think that I’ve lost anything having made the choice that I am making.
It’s possible that I’ll die and find that the afterlife is a come one, come all affair and that it makes no difference what kinds of choices I made in this life. If that’s the case then in all reality I’m not that interested in the god who’s running the show, I don’t have a lot of interest in a god who isn’t trying to improve people, but even that disapproval won’t matter so again, I haven’t lost anything.
It’s possible that I’ll get to the other side a Buddha will be sitting there and he’ll shake his head at me and say “you know, you really missed the boat, Buddhism was the way to go.” But if that Buddha is the kind of god that I am interested in, then the next line will go something like this, “but you lived a good life, and you tried to help your fellow man and sure you got a few of the details wrong, and you may have to do a little work to make up for that, but overall I say well done.” If the next line doesn’t at least have something to do with having tried my best and still having some way to improve, then again, I’m not that interested in that god.
I also believe that if you’re not Mormon but you tried your best and helped your fellow man and so forth that my God will welcome you with something a lot like the line I’d expect from the Buddha. (And I’ll even mention that I believe that there are Mormons who won’t get such a friendly greeting from my God.)
Could Joseph Smith been crazy or delusional or a phenomenally good con artist? Sure. But If he was then he was a crazy/delusional/con artist who started something that has done more good for the world in general, through charitable giving and humanitarian aid than any other crazy, delusional, con artist ever (and I don’t believe that that just happens) so I’d still giving him props. But I choose to believe that he was just what he said he was and that he did and saw just what he said he did.
I choose all of that because to me that’s what faith is.
The difference between me and that doctor that I work with has nothing to do with questioning, we both do that, I do it all the time, the difference is that he has no faith because he’s unwilling to be wrong. Having faith means choosing something with the knowledge that you could be wrong, with the knowledge that there’s no concrete evidence but choosing to believe it anyway. That’s why they call it a leap.
I Am Thankful
05 Nov 2010 10 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, Shortys
For…
Computers
Berries
Bed warmers
Slippers
Bodies
Your turn.
Humility
01 Jul 2010 10 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, Who's In Charge of All These Little People?
I said something absolutely inexcusable to my children this morning.
I could go into details about the extenuating circumstances and about the time and the blah blah blah but none of it makes it ok.
None of it.
And I know that, I want to not believe it, but I know it.
A few minutes after my horrific explosion I was on facebook. I saw a link to this, and another link to this and another … I didn’t want to watch it, it was only going to make me feel worse. But somehow I did anyway.
And it did make me feel worse.
But it also made me feel better.
PS. My favorite part is when she’s trying to get the kid out of the bathroom.
Swiss Family Wonderland
20 Jan 2010 7 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, The Stuff I Watch
Sean and I and the Wonderkids watched Swiss Family Robinson for a family movie the other night. So the movie starts and they’re shipwrecked and they get off the ship and they’re standing on the beach and the dad says “the first thing we need to do is sat up some kind of shelter for tonight” but then the mom says, “no, not the first thing” and then they all kneel down right there on the beach.
Maybe it’s just me but, I think that’s something they’ll leave out of the remake.
Prayer, Trust and Bargaining
15 Jan 2010 6 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, To Prove to Dad I'm Not A Fool, Using My Powers to Thwart Evil
Pardon the blatant religion. Or, you know, don’t, whatever.
There’s something I want. I say want because I’m not sure that it quite classifies as a need, but it’s a close thing. What I want is to register for Physiology. It’s the last class I have to take to fulfill the nursing prereqs and I just want to take it and get it out of the way. Unfortunately, Physiology has a prereq of its own, Biology, a class that I’m taking this semester but because I don’t have a grade for Bio, I can’t register for Phys. So I’m doing all that I can to get it, I’m making phone calls and sending emails and checking the computer and all that.
And I’m praying.
When I first realized that I might have trouble registering for Phys I prayed about (also about whether I’d be able to handle the class without the Bio background) and the answer I got was that I shouldn’t worry about it, that I’d somehow be bale to get the class and I’d do fine in it. I think.
And there’s my first problem. I believe that the Lord sends us signs, I believe that He talks to us and I believe that He points us in the right direction. Except really I believe that most of the signs are in the fine print, that He mostly whispers and that He does a lot more gentle nudging than He does pointing. I’d really rather He just grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me in the direction I need to go but it doesn’t work like that. I pray and I feel like I’m getting answers (sometimes) but, then I inevitably wonder if I’m just deluding myself, if my subconscious or something has just kicked in and calmed me down and it’s not divine direction at all, just my brain trying to lower my blood pressure. I’ve gotten better at trusting the calm, and I know that that’s the best way to be more sure that it really is an answer the next time, but it’s still hard.
So here I am now, the semester’s started and I’m still not registered for Phys. And the brilliant plan that I came up with last fall, of showing up in class and explaining the situation to the instructor and getting him/her to register me has been shot all to heck and gone because the school has changed the method by which students are added to classes so it’s all back on me and I still can’t register because I still don’t have a grade for the prereq. So I’m back to the nail biting and hoping and calling and emailing and praying. And I’m back to the doubting my answer from before except that I’m getting the same answer now. But how can that be right? The class is sure to fill up and then even if I talk someone into my point of view they won’t be able to help me because there won’t be space! So I’m praying harder but well, that’s just silly right? I mean I’m an adult, how may times can I say please? What I want to do is offer something. I want to bargain.
I’m on my knees and I find myself saying or at least wanting to say “get me into that class and I’ll go to the temple twice a month” or “I’ll make sure that I do scriptures with the kids every day, not just school days” or “I’ll never swear again”. (All worthy goals I’d like to point out.) But I know that that’s not how it works, I know that the Lord doesn’t work on the barter system, bad things happen to good people all the time, cheaters prosper with some amount of regularity. It’ll all even up in the end, I believe that too, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll get into the Phys class that I need whether I go to the temple every day or not.
So what’s a girl to do?
Nothing dang it. I need to keep trying to do my best, maybe I should try to read scriptures with the kids a little more but not so that I’ll get into Phys, just because I should. I need to keep doing everything I can to get into the class, and I need to trust the Lord that whatever happens, whether I get into Phys or not, will be the best thing for me and my family. I need to trust the fine print and the whispering and the nudges. But if you happen to see a billboard with my name on it, let me know will ya?
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PS. I got into the phys class this morning and in the end it was really easy, it took one phone call. Maybe the Lord was right and I didn’t need to worry after all. Huh.
Well, Here’s Something
09 Jun 2009 5 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, I'm Not the Only One Who Thinks I'm Great!
Despite the dearth of posts over here I’m guest posting elsewhere today.
That’s right, I am the featured poster over at Mormon Women.
I was going to leave it at that because I know that a lot of my readers also read Cheryl and Janelle so they know all about the Mormon Women site. But it occurs to me that some of you actually don’t read those gals (although, why that would be I have no idea) so you might not know about it and you might be interested (I’m talking to you, Lisa (although you do read Annette so you may know about it after all and…) whatever).
Anyway, Mormon Women is a website put together by an amazing group of women who (oddly enough) all happen to be Mormon. The point of the whole thing is to get the word out that we’re not all freaks and weirdos and crazies. That there are a lot of LDS women out there who live their religion and love their religion and who are perfectly content. Unfortunately contentment breeds complacency so a lot of us don’t really think about writing about the things that we’re perfectly happy about. (I know that for me a post is hardly a post if I haven’t gotten in at least one good complaint.) But that needs to change. You need to write about your experiences, your thoughts, etc, and submit them over there.
The post of mine that’s up there today is actually a re-post, my faithful readers will recognize it from here a few months ago, but I have another original post that’s mostly formed in my head that I’ll be submitting soon so you’ll need to hang out over there if you want to see it. And while you’re over there you can comment, and even submit something of your own. We’ve been asked to take our religious discussions on-line, let’s make sure that the only folks doing so aren’t those with an ax to grind.
Incidentally Mormon
22 May 2009 12 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, Overthink Much?, The Stuff I Read
I just finished reading a book called Zippedby Laura and Tom McNeal, it was pretty good, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for fairly lightweight teen fiction, but that’s not the point. (If that were all it was, I wouldn’t bother mentioning it.) The reason that I bring it up is that there’s a Mormon character in the book. It’s not LDS fiction, it’s set in New England somewhere (I imagine that it said specifically but it wasn’t crucial enough for me to retain) not Utah, and it’s just this one girl and her mother that are Mormon.
And as soon it was mentioned that she was Mormon I was on alert.
Was this going to be anti? Was she going to leave the church and realize that she had been brainwashed? (I have other objections to the whole “brainwashed” designation but that’s something for another post.) Was she going to be some sort of wooden characeture rather than a fleshed out person? Or some kind of holier than thou, miss priss?
And she was none of those things. She was a real girl who liked and apparently believed in her religion. She was slightly conflicted but she was a teenaged girl, as teenagers weren’t we all at least slightly conflicted?(Aren’t we still?) She had a crush on a missionary, he had a crush on her, they chatted, even acknowledged the crush, she made him a plate of cookies, they even were as daring as to hug once. It’s not the kind of behavior that is recommended in the mission handbook but it’s not going to get anyone ex-communicated either. They wouldn’t even send him home for that. (Transferred sure, but not sent home.) And they didn’t.
The girl wasn’t the main character of the book, she was the girl that the main character liked. So even the thing with the missionary was really just to add a little conflict. End of story. She didn’t leave the church, she didn’t even have a big crisis of faith. She was just a girl.
I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve run into that in fiction, and the more I think about that the weirder it is. I mean, there’s a lot of us, we’re all over the place. You expect that in Utah of course. I can’t imagine that anyone would write a book set in Utah in which there were not Mormon characters (but then I’ ve never read a book set in Utah that wasn’t Mormon fiction) but it’s not like there are only Mormons in Utah. I grew up in Virginia. I was one of maybe 20 Mormons in my high school, not an overwhelming majority by any stretch but I think it’s safe to say that everyone in the school knew a Mormon. Probably most of the kids in the school would have counted at least one of us Mormons as a friend. We were characters in their lives who just happened to be Mormon, not necessarily good, not necessarily bad. We may have been having big religious crises but for the most part probably not, we were just going about our lives.
I don’t see that in the books that I read.
It turns out that at least one of the authors is probably Mormon. She graduated from BYU anyway, I haven’t looked up her church records or anything so I’m just extrapolating here but it seems a reasonable assumption. It’s harder to tell but my gut feeling is that her husband, the other author, is not. (The girl’s father is not Mormon, and … I don’t know something about it just makes me think that that part is somewhat autobiographical.) But I digress.
The point is that it’s a little sad to me that as soon as I run across a character who is Mormon, I’m immediately afraid that somehow the book is going to say something negative about the church. I was surprised and, I have to say, delighted, to read a book with a character who was just incidentally Mormon.
Tell Me What You See
13 Feb 2009 13 Comments
in How I Spend My Sundays, The Job They Pay Me For
My kids have been sick all week. I’ve had two of them puking and the other two have… had trouble at the other end. But when I got up this morning I felt just fine. I went to work, had breakfast, did my thing. All was fine.
Unbeknownst to me, at about 8:00 this morning Katie* called in sick. She was supposed to work form 11:00 am to 11:00 pm.
At about 9:45 this morning I was still ok. And at 10:00 I thought I was going to puke. I didn’t, but it was a close thing.
At 10:30ish I let the charge nurse, Jason, know that I wasn’t feeling well in the hopes that he could find something for me to do that I could do sitting down. He couldn’t so I kept working. I was sitting whenever possible and I was moving at about half speed. But I was still moving so that was ok. But I was feeling progressively worse.
At 2:00 I got my lunch. I went and curled up in a chair and slept through the whole thing.
When I woke up and I headed back to the room I had been in the charge nurse, Jason, told me that he knew I wasn’t feeling well and that he was doing all that he could to get me out and hopefully send me home but I’d need to stay for a little while longer. I thanked him for his efforts, went back to my room and finished up the case we were doing, at which point there wasn’t anything else for me to do immediately. But I still couldn’t leave.
A little background: The operating room is staffed 24/7 but the majority of the staff only work from 7am-5pm. There are usually 6 or 7 techs and 6 or 7 nurses who stay until 7pm and then from 7pm – 11pm there are only two teams and after 11, only one. In the event that there are more cases going on than we have staff for, beginning at 5:00pm there is someone on call. In fact there are four people on call. Any one of them can be called depending on the kind of cases going on but if they’re just “general” OR cases the call schedule goes like this: 1. general call (first call) 2. Liver call (second call) 3. Neuro call 4. Cardio-vascular (CV) call.
Today I was one of the 6 or 7 who was supposed to stay until 7pm so even though I didn’t have to be in a room at 3:00 I had to stick around because the way the day was going they were going to need me to be there at 5:00. And it was only because Jason, the charge nurse, is a super nice guy and took pity on me that I didn’t have to go in a room at 3:00. So I sat at the front desk hoping that things would work out so that I wouldn’ have to be there at 5:00 and getting progressively sicker, until about 4:00 when I hit the junkie, I’m so sick I can’t even stand to be in my own skin phase, when it became clear that I was not going to be going anywhere but to an OR at 5:00. Oh and I was not going to be going anywhere at 7:00 either.
Remember how Katie called in sick? Well, they couldn’t get anyone to cover her shift which means that the person on call has to cover it. Pam was the girl on call. But if Pam’s covering the shift who’s covering her call? Remember our list up there? It’s liver call. I was on liver call. And there were going to be a lot of rooms still going at 7:00.
Realizing that I was stuck my first impulse was to see if I could get someone to cover my call. I made one call and during the course of that call was reminded that everyone had already been called when they were trying to get the 11-11 shift covered. I was not going to be successful. So I went to plan B. At 4:00, with an hour to go before I was going to have to scrub in I went and found one of my doctor friends and told him of my plight and he administered drugs. (Sometimes working in a hospital is fantastic.) He gave me some Zofran (pretty heavy duty stuff) for the nausea and and IV to rehydrate me and take away the junkie twitchy feeling. At that point I looked like I was going to be there until about 9:00 and the doctor assured me that I would be feeling fine soon and that the effects would last at least that long.
So I slept sat for an hour in a quiet room with the magical elixir dripping into my arm and at the end of the hour did I feel better? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. I still felt absolutely awful. But there was nothing for it, I pulled out the IV, scrubbed my hands and went to work. Very, slow quite ineffective work but work just the same. As I finished the first case the doctor I was working with, who’s also a good friend of mine, commented on how bad I looked (I looked bad enough that that kind of comment was completely acceptable). He even went and gave Jason a hard time, telling him to get me out of the hospital.
A little more background: I DO NOT TRY TO GO HOME SICK. EVER. I do not complain about being sick at work. I have been through two entire pregnancies since I got my current job and I didn’t make a peep. Not one. I worked straight through from conception to delivery twice and missed maybe maybe a total of 3 days. Does that give you a little better concept of how I was feeling? I also hate HATE hate to inconvenience people. I will go a long long way out of my way to avoid getting in yours. I regularly stay at work late so that they won’t have to call the call team in because I know that that is inconvenient. I just really don’t want to be a bother.
Jason wanted to get me out, the problem was that he already had General call, Liver call and Neuro call there along with one or two people who weren’t on call but had agreed to stay and help out. There were 5 rooms going.
Finally, after getting a hard time from my doctor, and there may have been some tears on my part (not directed at Jason, he was doing his best and really I felt bad for causing him more problems) because I just felt so awful, he called Richard who was the tech on call for CV. As soon as they told that he was on his way I felt better, a lot better. Not, “I’m going to hit the gym on my way home from work” better not even “I think I might eat again this week” better but definitely”if I had only felt this bad all along they wouldn’t have had to call anyone in for me” better. I even felt a little guilty that Richard was coming in. Not quite guilty enough to call him back (he was already on his way after all) but a little bit.
Unfortunately Richard is a little bit of a prima-donna and he was not happy about being called in to let me go home just because I wasn’t feeling well. In fact, as soon as he got to the OR he was working on finding a way to not have to get me out, trying to shift people around, shake things up, and just generally work it out so that he wouldn’t have to work. For ten minutes he did this.
And then all of a sudden they called out of room nine. The case they were doing, the easiest, teensiest, nothingest case going in the whole OR had gone badly, really badly, this complication has never ever happened before kind of badly, and they needed to open the patient’s chest immediately.
That’s what CV does. And only CV does it.
Richard wasted no time, he ran back to room nine and immediately started grabbing supplies and setting up for the case that they were now going to have to do. And there wasn’t one other person in the OR who would have had any idea of what to do.
If I had felt any better, even the slightest bit better, I would not have cried and I would not have looked so awful that my doctor friends were offering to write me notes and Richard would not have been there. If I had not felt as awful as I did, despite the drugs, rest and fluid that I had gotten, Richard wouldn’t have been there. If I had found someone to cover my call or if they had found someone to cover the 11-11 shift, Richard wouldn’t have been there.
My religion teaches a lot about free will. And I absolutely believe it, no one can make me do anything. Including God.
But I wonder if sometimes He goes out of His way, maybe a long way out of His way, to make sure things turn out they way he wants them to.
Or maybe it was a coincidence.
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* All names have been changed.
Ayudame Por Favor
04 Feb 2009 11 Comments
in Cash, Green, Moolah, Lettuce, Pesos..., How I Spend My Sundays, I May Just Be Crazy Afterall, Writing
Hey, I need some info about church courts. It’s for a book I’m writing, nothing to worry about. Anyway, if you know anything about how this stuff works and would be willing to help a girl out let me know in the comments or you can email me a h.alisonwonderland@gmail.com
Thanks for your support.
And for you who are selfish and unwilling to help me in my time of need can’t help me I’ll leave you with the annoying things I heard on the radio this morning in no particular order.
Commercials.
1. Announcer: Are you drowning in debt? Are you unable to make the payments on your house? your car? or your credit cards? It’s not your fault!
Me: Um, yes, YES IT IS!
(No offence intended to those in debt. Despite multiple warnings and exhortations to the contrary I am in debt myself (Although I am perfectly able to make the payments. So far.) but I am also fully aware that it is MY OWN DARN FAULT!!!!)
2. Announcer: The average person gained 15 lbs over the holidays.
Me: 15 lbs? No stinkin’ way. The average person who stopped by your weight loss center? Sure. But there is now way that the average person went up 3 dress sizes over the course of November and December. And that ‘s just the average. I only gaind 2 or 3 if any ( I don’t own a scale and if I did I wouldn’t use it) so to make up for me there’s someone out there who gained 28? Nope. Flat out, not true.
3. Announcer: ARE YOU DRIVING A CAR YOU DON’T LOVE? ARE THE PAYMENTS HIGHER THAN YOU’D LIKE? HERE AT PICK YOUR USED CAR DEALERSHIP WE CAN GET YOU INTO THE CAR OF YOUR DREAMS REGARDLESS OF YOU CREDIT HISTORY!
Me: I get that you’re just trying to make a living here, and I can respect that. And while I may not like your methods or the fact that you prey on those who are perpetually irrespnsible with their money (see above note about my debt), I can get past that too. But really WILL YOU JUST STOP YELLING AT ME?!!!
More Virtual Randomosity
02 Feb 2009 16 Comments
in Cash, Green, Moolah, Lettuce, Pesos..., How I Spend My Sundays, My Drug of Choice, Who's In Charge of All These Little People?
I’m thinking about pinching the Infantile Delinquent this morning just to see if he could possibly whine any more. I’d be surprised.
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A conversation with the neighbor kid:
Neighbor Kid: “I didn’t ever went there.”
The Pea: “You didn’t ever go there.”
The Princess: “You need to learn your grammar.”
Probably both rude things to say but I still couldn’t have been prouder.
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Remember this post? Oh and this one? About how the elementary school is teaching my kids to buy on credit.
Well, I have this friend who we’ll call Keidi (hi Heidi) who got a bill from her daughter’s private school the other day. For $181.00. A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ONE DOLLARS!!!!!!!! It seems that Keidi’s six year old has chosen to not eat the lunch lovinly provided by her mother every day, all year. And the school didn’t bother to let Keidi know until now.
The $1.40 that I owe periodically for my kids is one thing but there’s no way I would pay $200 that my child’s elementary school let my six year old charge. NO WAY!!!!
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I met Cheryl and Annette the other day.
I invited them over for book club. We read one of Annette’s books and she was our featured guest (and I wanted to meet Cheryl so I used that as an excuse) both ladies were absolutely delightful.
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One of my neighbors had a yard sale yesterday and I saw, as I drove home from church, that they had a big old table for sale. I really want that table (since I’ve ruined my own) but I made the better choice and didn’t shop on the Sabbath. All I’m saying is that I expect some blessings for that (like maybe them still having the table. And the dressers they had out there. For really cheap.)
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Happy Monday Everyone!
