tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post1529234859445026806..comments2023-09-17T04:26:15.925-04:00Comments on Antithesis: Hope for the New YearRichard Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17633639712911093318noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post-17353130710159211822009-01-08T09:19:00.000-05:002009-01-08T09:19:00.000-05:00Very good thoughts, Mary. Thank you for this post...Very good thoughts, Mary. Thank you for this post.<BR/><BR/>I think one of the blessings of being able to look back and recognize our own immaturity and how we've changed is being able to unreservedly accept the immaturity of others, knowing that by God's grace they will also grow and mature. As my father used to say, "A sure sign of an immature person is that they think they're already mature!"A. Kay Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09127820418406559897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post-28541258252182928062009-01-02T14:51:00.000-05:002009-01-02T14:51:00.000-05:00Thank you, and yes, I will stop and pray for you w...Thank you, and yes, I will stop and pray for you when I visit the blog -- that will help me not to forget. I am thankful for the new friends I've met here!Mary Fullerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11854259384676390882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post-30661482464218747162009-01-02T11:23:00.000-05:002009-01-02T11:23:00.000-05:00Mary, what great thoughts!I am currently talking t...Mary, what great thoughts!<BR/><BR/>I am currently talking to one of the pastor's wives at our church. I called her one day, asking her to pray with me for my children. In particular, one of our girls (we have three girls, and they will be turning 20, 17, and 10 this year).<BR/><BR/>She prayed with me, then a few weeks later called me and asked me how I was doing. I was SO appreciative of her follow-up call, as I put it. She said it wasn't so much "follow-up" as she was wanting to be a friend. She's in her sixties, and I turned fifty a couple months back, and her children are grown and married, so she's been through it all and is now relating to them all as adults. <BR/><BR/>Like you, she gave me her perspective of when she was a daughter, and prayed with me and for them and for me, and assured me things were going to be all right, that God answers prayer, etc..<BR/><BR/>We are still in the thick of some issues, and I guess compared to what other people go through they are minor, but our standard isn't what the world considers to be minor, but our standard is also the <BR/>source book of great hope. We desire hearts that beat for God and seek to please Him, and hearts that know what it means to be in Christ. And God tells us we don't have because we don't ask, and that He desires for us to pray at all times. So we have hope, not only on account of remembering where we were and where we are now, but hope in God who will do the same for our children if we keep praying for them.<BR/><BR/>And it takes a lot of years to come to maturity, and we never do stop growing in this life.<BR/><BR/>I'll pray for you and yours, Mary, and I'd appreciate you remembering me and my family in your prayers.simplegifts3https://www.blogger.com/profile/08000500581749760466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post-43279243810925599442009-01-02T10:10:00.000-05:002009-01-02T10:10:00.000-05:00Well, I'm sharing a lesson I am still very much in...Well, I'm sharing a lesson I am still very much in the process of learning, which brings up a good point -- if I'm still "in the process", should I be impatient with my kids, my mate, my fellow parishoners, my pastor, etc. if they, too, are still in the process? Oh Lydia, I have SO MUCH to learn, and you know how hard-headed I can be. Praise God for His mercy or I would surely have been consumed by now!!!Mary Fullerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11854259384676390882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14620450.post-46685895861423184682009-01-02T08:50:00.000-05:002009-01-02T08:50:00.000-05:00Boy, all so true. I would absolutely hate to be a ...Boy, all so true. I would absolutely hate to be a teenager again. The only thing that was nicer was having fewer (minor) aches and pains.<BR/><BR/>We mothers do agonize about stuff like that. _Where_ are they going to find good husbands in a world like this? _What_ are they going to do with their lives if they don't? How is it all going to work out?? Thanks for the lesson in trusting God.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.com