potato

OMG TOM THANKS A LOT!!! you have no idea how many years it took to get those songs out of my head now they're back!!!!

she is a strange and wonderful being.

my five year old daughter is adorable and a drama-queen. she had to wait for dinner. this is bad. she has a hollow leg. she's the tiniest person I've ever seen put so much food away. she's ALWAYS hungry these days. after hearing her complain about being hungry, I told her that I need her to stop pestering me so I can cook dinner faster. she sat on the couch for about five minutes, then wailed forlornly "you'll probably bring me food and put it on my grave after I die, but I won't be able to eat it, because I'll be dead!!!"

church isn't a prerequisite for God... training up a child doesn't have to involve church. I think the most important thing is to show your love and keep the lines of communication open, and talk openly about what you learn, what you experience, and what you think of it. maybe later she'll find a group of her own. I kind of think wanting something for your kids that you don't want for yourself is hypocritical... I'm being a little blunt here but not to hurt anyone's feelings. I feel very strongly about it because my ex recently told our oldest that he thought twi was a waste of his time and he only went for the kids... like wtf? why did you waste the kids' time, then? why were we all tortured for so many years (many years before kids came along) if it was all for the kids? yuck. I feel that way about any religious practice. do it for yourself. teach by example. if you don't want it, why should your kids?

I understand how your daughter feels. if someone forced me to go to church with them right now, I would feel deeply hurt because I haven't come to terms yet with all I went through, and being a teenager makes it doubly difficult. my oldest has a lot of trust issues he's finally feeling ok to breach, after 3 years of therapy. I won't take him to a church, but I will talk to him about twi doctrines we took for granted, answer his questions, and respect his doubt.

this brought a tear to my eye. I know for a fact that twi would have required you toss her aside, no matter the depth of heart-to-heart sisterhood. but this speaks volumes, to love a person when they are going through hard times and pick up the slack for them a bit. her alcoholism might kill her, but that doesn't mean she has no value as a person, or that you should stop loving her. this is a true love story to me, the kind that real friends have. I don't really have friends. no one has been by my side through thick and thin. I think I'd like to have a few people like that.

socks, I heard you sleep around. I should put you on my friends list for just that reason, never mind any incidental respect I have for your mind.

excie, are you talking about the friends list thingy where you can add people and they appear on your profile, under the friends tab? if it is, here's my answer... it's one of those social networking type things. I like what you write, so I put you on my friends list. myspacers use it a little differently than I do, but I have class. you're on my friends list because you're interesting and I would like people who look at my profile to follow it to yours and read what you've written. if we were myspacers, you'da had to post a photo of yourself in your undies to get on anyone's friends list. thank God we don't need to do that here, it can be based on intellectual respect.

if there were clear scripture, it sure would be easier, wouldn't it? so far I find more clear scripture on the side of Jesus being the son of God and not God, yet then there are troublesome statements in scripture that don't appear reconciliable. there are a few scriptures that seem to clearly say Jesus is God if you interpret them a certain way, but the trinity is a troublesome doctrine of itself when you look at Jewish history and tradition because it's impossible to support, then there is plenty of issues that can only be explained away with elaborate constructions.

I think that's a reasonable request for both sides. starbird put some up for the unitarian position. who else will contribute? I do think a discussion of context would be important here, but NOT interpretation until we have a decent list from both sides.

I've only read and heard enought to convince me that the next PC I have to set up, will either get XP pro or linux. we're starting to test it at work so we can support our products on it and it will ony run on a few of our machines because the hardware requirements are so steep. my general feeling is to stay away from it as long as possible and if you're interested in multimedia, get a mac.

I understand the idea of denial when it comes to body image. I knew I was a little, uh, shall we say generously sized after I had my second child but I didn't know realize how bad the extra 30 pounds looked until I saw pictures of myself. if my ex didn't have a habit of lying and aggrandizement, I would suspect the same thing of him... but pooled with the other pathological habits it seems to be part of a larger problem. he regularly took credit for the ideas of others. he couldn't perform well on the job because others held him back. he at one time believed he was an olympic skier and signed autographs. he freaked, literally freaked, in the presence of anyone with a name, from lcm to movie stars. personally I don't think, taken as a whole, that this behavior set is "normal".

equating something taken into the body by the mouth for nourishment isn't the same thing at all when applied to the body for medicinally purposes. if you can find verses that talk about the use of blood in some other context than eating or drinking it, then that's what should be looked at to answer the question.

no wait... that living Gawd's word as a family or whatever it was that the most recent CF&S incarnation. it took audible revelation from God to heal me from that class.

advanced class, second time through.

I don't know what to call it except delusional. my ex used to say it too, when he was about 50# overweight and pear-shaped. he'd say, I have the body of adonis. I thought he was joking, then I found out he wasn't... he actually believed he was fit and appealing. he was angry... literally angry... for days after he had his body fat ratio measured. there was no way to deny the test results. it might be part of a personality disorder... narcissists reinvent their lives, why shouldn't that include being svelt and sexy when you're actually a tub?

I started doing that a couple of years ago... drives me crazy! coLORaDO, oreGON... ack!

I don't argue with the biblical interpretation of the sinless redeemer. I can accept that readily, but along with the acceptance comes the realization that what he did was incredible because he didn't have to do it... he could have sinned, he not only had the temptation to sin thrown in his face, but sin was a distinct option. I don't believe the question, therefore, is moot. could Jesus, being God, actually sin? if he could, then God can sin and I don't see that idea as harmonizing with the scriptures. or, can God, being all-powerful, commit sin? does the potential, then, for evil in God mean that he is not all light and love as the scriptures teach?

there's a vast difference between hedging to protect your privacy and telling outright lies on a consistent basis. I actually used to think that one could live honestly and truthfully. now I could be accused of dishonesty for withholding information or obfuscating facts when revealing them could cause me harm, or being sneaky and sly for investigating my ex-husband's girlfriend without telling him about it... after all, I could just be honest and ask him, right? in a perfect world I'd love to live honestly but I have to protect myself and I learned the hard way people will take your honesty and trust and use it against you. I think asking for the perfect one to step forward must be a facetious request. no one is perfect and our "old man nature" might have a predisposition to lie, as you surmise, but that is no excuse for the vpw's and lcm's in this world. shallow obfuscation does not excuse the depths of their lies, as the air-brushing of spoiled fruit doesn't make the fruit sweet. I really can't work any more of those terms into my post.

yikes!!!! ok, now I have to find out, what can you do with handwriting analysis?

I never bought vpw's explanation of the plural voice. it seemed like quite a stretch without evidence, like his assertion that soul-life comes from the man because in his opinion that's the only way Jesus' blood could be clean enough to be the sinless offering.

I'm not satisfied, so will continue to seek an answer.

oh my gosh. I didn't think there would be another with a phobia of handwriting analysis. my brother!

I also have a need to organized dirty dishes before I wash them. I'm hoping once I get a dishwasher I won't be so neurotic about it.

I have far too many quirks to list, and I now celebrate them. my fiance and I put certain things on our "list of psychotic hatreds" which we share with each other so we can work at mutally respecting the others' dearest neuroses. sadly, my quirks get no respect at home because my children run roughshod over pretty much everything, so I stick to the basics: never drop dishes in the sink if you're too short to see what's in there. if you make a cappuccino, you must (MUST) blow steam out through the steaming nozzle when you're done. coats go on the coat-rack. mommy goes insane when she sees a coat on the table or floor. do not put empty containers in the fridge. ever. if you open a box of cereal, the cereal goes into a gallon ziploc bag and then back into the box. this quirk is actually very neurotic and has to do with having to eat cereal with bugs and mouse turds in it when I was a kid. now, if I could, I'd get people to stop talking to me, but unfortunately my kids don't consider that reasonable and refuse to contact me on IM. my co-workers likewise refuse to respect that, except for my friend in the next cube who prefers interaction via chat as well.