I should have said that mom THEN said…“And if you EVER do anything that horrible, I will make VERY sure that you are going to “rue the day” you ever disregarded how you were raised.”
[sub]Well, I said she was WONDERFUL, I NEVER said she was a saint![/sub]
Also, the couple in question have now been married ten years. They have two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, and appear to be blissfully happy. Dad (“grandpa”) is still not in their life, but mom (grandma) IS and continues to love them all DEARLY.
For your information, you may enclose ordinary English letters in the Symbol Tag-pair to produce the Greek. Use your Character Map applet with Symbol Font to find the one-to-one correspondence.
That is so true. Thank you for your post, and btw I was including you in the ‘people put put things much better than I do.’
I liked hearing about your mom. I assume she’s not with you anymore? I also had people - a whole side of my family actually - that formed my beliefs as much as the words in any book did, by example, through love and compassion for others. I don’t post here very much but I’m a regular on other boards, so I know about the world of difference that exists when you’ve been born and raised in a strong faith as opposed to developing one yourself…which is the much harder way IMO.
When I was little my playmates in the schoolyard were Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Greek Orthodox, a few “I Don’t Knows” and one or two “Nothings”. It made a difference in after school activities and whether or not and what time they’d be available on Sundays, that’s about it. (I never heard the word Christian used commonly until I went online.) When you’re little you don’t know what doctrines you follow or even where to find them, you don’t know all the differences between you and any other person - and it doesn’t really matter. The differences are learned later and then you begin to modify your behavior accordingly, if at all.
So it makes sense to me that we all start at a ground zero of tolerance and compassion, with or without faith, and then all branch out and grow into different directions. Intolerance and nonacceptance is what is learned, if your system of belief (or non-belief) leads you in that direction. I don’t think it has to be that way; I think that’s a choice as much as anything else.
Paraphrasing what Polycarp said, which is the first time I’ve ever seen it written on a message board and it’s just perfect: when two or more interpretations of the same text are apparent, it makes more sense to use the inclusive one than an exclusive one, in matters of grace and salvation, because that’s the one that fits the essential tolerant, compassionate and inclusive nature of Christ. :::applause::: Pardon my bad GD manners but it’s NFL playoff season that thought deserves some cheering from the crowd. Whoo-hoo!!
I hope that those who disagree with that, if any, could at least understand that that comes from the heart as part and parcel of the faith. It’s not meant to be devisive toward other Christians, but rather inclusive to everyone.
