LossForWords

Nope... Anger is a natural emotion. I try not to sin in my anger and I try not to hold on to that anger for a long period of time. I think maybe if I were to sin or to be angry for a long time about something, I could imagine becoming ill about it. But I get angry, say something about it, or get over it. After reading the comments though, I feel a bit odd about not becoming sick when I'm angry with some one. Oh well...

Born a Nazarene. Probably gonna die a Nazarene.

I used to live in Sumter, SC...practically next door to Shaw Air Force Base. (That was a looooong time ago). But I remember being a child and everyone talking about these things in the sky. It ended up they were the stealth bombers that were being tested at the base. No aliens. Poop. But I do so enjoy the movie "The Explorers"...River Phoenix before his delve into drugs and death. I don't know if I believe that UFO's carry aliens from another planet, but I do believe there are things in the sky that not every one knows exists at this moment. I also #1 don't believe that UFO's are demonic and #2 don't believe that UFO sightings are actually a sign of the end times. There's always been stuff in the sky that we don't always recognize. Like so many others though, I often wonder why people who are abducted by aliens are always people that you would have cause to question their judgement...

Now I've heard that in some cases, after you've been married for awhile, you begin to look like your spouse. In this case, I think I would have begin to wonder when people began making comments about looking alike before the marriage vows had been said.

I have a big ol' ugly gargoyole guarding my garden.

There was once a topic on here about how gnomes are evil, and that if you own a gnome, you're pretty much opening yourself up to demonic activity. The police chief better keep a close eye on those things, don't give the gnomes free roam of the office.

The winning smile and the dancing... Bill Clinton went on MTV, played his sax, and had an entire generation behind him. I saw Obama on Ellen, he was dancing, (poorly I might add)...so now he has the black vote and the homosexual vote? Geesh. I'd cast my vote for Fred Thompson, however, I don't think he'll even make it on the Republican ballet. That's another fear...like Marnie said, I'm afraid my generation will look to the more public Republican like Guiliani...not because he has the best values or what not, but because we all remember him as mayor during 9-11. He's the trendy pick, so might as well put him in office.

"SHEEPLE!!" There's my chuckle for the evening. Thank you Kat.

That's my concern... Oprah shows her support for Obama because he has potential to be our first black president. However, Oprah and Obama are so far removed from any normal situation an average colored person would find themselves in, that it's hard to believe some one like Obama could be a spokes person for any specific race. It seems like once a black person makes it beyond the average socio economic status that the majority of us find ourselves in, they are no longer able to speak for the average person. My fear is that the majority of black people are going to vote for Obama because he's black, but just because he's black doesn't mean he's going to be able to understand the plight of the average African American.

well i'm the ghost hunter. i've seen things that could be easily explained , and some things that could not be explained. was my mind playing tricks on me possiblely. but other people saw the same thing or heard the same thing. i'm talking about " waverly hills sanitarium" over 63,000 men women and children died there.i can talk about waverly all night. but to feel the pain and suffering, come to louisville,ky. and take a tour. then tell me how you feel about ghost. jp Oooooh...I have visited there. When I was a teenager I went to high school in Ashland, KY...one day we all decided to take a day and check it out. It was not dark, we arrived at around 2pm, we lasted about 7 minutes. We did not "see" anything, but heard enough to be frightened into running away. I still do not believe everything we see or hear is demonic though.

damo...I meant your posts are hard to read because of the grammar. It's the teacher in me... sierra...of course you would see where I am coming from!!

Goodness, you are one hard fella to read...where are you from?!? (damo) I don't really want to get on the topic of worshipping Mary, as my church does not have saints that we pray too, we believe Jesus actually came down off the cross, and we don't have long traditional services in which we are made to kneel and then get up and then kneel again. I posed the question because I was curious what others would say... From reading the other posts though I can see that I've probably already formed my own opinion. Which is..."I HAVE NO IDEA!" I could argue either way. Mary was chosen by God and therefore I could understand him allowing her to have a special relationship with Jesus. However, at the same time, if Mary is in Heaven, she got there because of the sacrifice, which means she would also be thinking of him as her savior, and not just her son. If the Bible gave us all the information we could ever want, it would be never ending. The Never Ending Story...now there's an interesting movie.

I don't know...I guess as some one who is getting ready to be a mother, it would be hard to convince me that she ever stopped seeing Jesus as her son. I don't believe in worshipping Mary or the other saints. Which is one reason why I am not Catholic. I don't want to put Mary on a pedastal, because I think she made mistakes as all mothers make mistakes. But because she was given favor in God's eyes, I wonder if she has a different relationship with Jesus in Heaven. I wonder if that relationship is even allowed.

Do people still have visions?

I'm not Catholic, and would rather not dip my tootsies into that one, I'm a Nazarene (like Jesus, hee hee). Jesus did refer to Mary as "woman" various times in the Bible...yet I've referred to my mom as "woman" too...as I was being sarcastic, or I was just in the mood to be a little demanding. And Mary, being human, most definately probably made mistakes, as all mothers do. I just keep going back to the fact that she was his birth mother. She birthed him...in a barn. It doesn't say a whole lot in the Bible about Jesus' infant, toddler, or early childhood years. We get a few glimpses of Jesus as a young man (pre-teens perhaps)...such as when he strays from his parents and sets up current residence in the temple. However, I don't think Mary forgot her place, she just had the same motherly instinct that all women have once they give birth. Obviously Mary was chosen for a reason. Maybe she was able to cast aside her motherly burden and see Jesus as God's son and only God's son, sent here for a mission, and maybe she was able to distance herself from her child for that fact. But because she was around so much, even when Jesus was ignoring the "woman" it makes me wonder if her motherly instinct was always there. Which brings me back to the original question, what is her relationship to Jesus in Heaven? I guess it's not really something that can be answered just yet, just one of those things I'll ponder on for a little while until a new question pops into the old noggin. Hopefully, when we reach Heaven we will either be all knowing or not care that we aren't all knowing...that way I won't be bending God's ear night and day with my 3rd degree.

I don

You beat me to the punch!

I just like the part that says don't light the candle...so we won't be in need of another miracle. That made me chuckle a little. <---that's me emitting a little chuckle. I'm hoping that's not bad for the environment. I heard on the radio this morning that our winter here in the south is supposed to be a few degrees warmer than usual, which is supposed to be related to global warming. Ah well...we haven't had snow in the past 4 years, I suppose another year won't kill us.

Oh my goodness...did you read the book based on the song? Waaaaaaah!!

Oops...it posted twice.

Ok, so the artists' name leave something to desired, but I love their version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"...Sarah McLachlan & Barenaked Ladies...

Older children do convince children that Santa is not real...which I said several pages back is what happened in my case. However, younger children often believe for no other reason than it's fun. They can't tell you how Santa finds their house at night, or how he gets in even if they don't have a chimney, or how they think reindeer are able to fly, or how Santa fits all those presents into his sleigh...as young children they just believe....they don't need an excuse. Just like some young children believe they can fly if they put on a cape. It's their imagination at work. Of course the majority of children wouldn't believe in Santa if all parents sat their children down one day and told them that Santa wasn't real and that any story they hear, or program they watch, or other children they talk too are just fabricated...but the majority of children who believe in Santa aren't being sat down and told that whatever they hear at Christmas time about Santa is fake. The majority of children who believe in Santa just listen to the stories, watch the programs, and dream until they're too old to believe in the nonsense. The reason why I am angry with you is because you intentionally tried to make it seem that I was lying about my experience. Other people see the maliciousness of your post as well. You can go back and try and defend it all you want, but it was rude and disrespectful and I believe hurts whatever message you are trying to relay to others. When you resort to name calling, while you are trying to make some one else look like the culprit, you are at the same time making yourself less credible. I do not think I am wrong in being offended by your comment.

What grade did you teach? Most kids learn Santa is not real from their peers. By the way, my husband says he quite frankly does not believe you and that you are saying that for the sake of argument. My husband also went to public school. Guess what else? We have two children, and neither of them believe in Santa. They are ten and three. (Will be 4 on Dec. 11th) But if they did persist in believing in Santa regardless of what we told them, then our children would most definately be idolizing Santa and that would concern us greatly. Now see, this is where you are getting yourself into a bit of hot water... Please go back and read some of my previous posts from the past year or so. You will see that my being a public school teacher and now working amongst private Christian schools is not a secret that I hide. I have posted several times in the Ladies Lounge as well as in the public forum that I used to be a public school teacher and that I now work for our district. My father is currently a Nazarene pastor, he works at a Nazarene church in Texas at the moment...my dad has always been a Nazarene pastor. While growing up I lived in Ohio twice, South Carolina twice, Georgia twice, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, and I am now back in South Carolina. Growing up, I remember the majority of the younger children did believe in Santa...it was an older child who told me she didn't think Santa was real because she didn't think he could fly around the entire world in a night when half the world was in day light. So when I asked my parents if Santa was real, they said, "nope." Which is what I will do in return for my child when the time comes. By the way, tell your "husband" I think he and his wife are just angry because there are people involved in this conversation that do not feel convicted about allowing their children to believe in Santa...and if we were all truthful...it's not the believing in Santa that actually offends you so much...it's that other people disagree with your philosophy. You tell one person that you think their children are the oddity because in all your years you would say that chidlren believing in Santa though never being told he is real are in the minority. But when I post my opinion from my own experience (which would include moving around alot as well, being exposed to an extraordinary amount of children from all different backgrounds, teaching in public schools, and now being involved in the private aspect of schooling) about small children (I did say I taught elementary...kindergarten and first grade) not believing in Santa being a minority (especially amongst public school kids)...you get all hot and accuse me of lying. How extremely un-Christian like behavior. Actually I'm quite offended that you or your husband would out right post that you think I'm lying just because my experience is different than yours. How rude and disrespectful.

I moved around alot as well (being a pastor's kid). I've taught elementary children for 5 years. I now work amongst Nazarene day cares and private schools. In my experience, I would say that the children who do not believe in Santa are among the minority. I know in the past 5 years of teaching, I always had one or two children out of 25-30 that did not believe in Santa. And if you were to ask these children that believe if mommy told them Santa was real, if they were honest, they would say, "nope, I just believe." I don't think LadyC's kids are in the minority. They were around kids all the time at school and during play time at home. During the holidays Santa is going to get talked about and children are going to believe. And I'm not going to sit them down and burst their imaginary bubble. Just as I'm not going to burst my child's bubble when he thinks he is hiding even though only his upper body is covered.

I don't know that any of the Christian parents (or soon to be parents as in the case of me and Deb) on Worthy who have been involved in this conversation have ever sat our children down and told them to believe in Santa. Santa was a real person...a real person that the church wanted to remember, so they made him into a saint. This saint was later carried to America. In America the awesome writer Washington Irving wrote a story about the History of New York which included St. Nick. Later on an Episcopal Minister, Moore, decided to write a poem to his daughters to tell the story of St. Nick...I think the poem was actually called, "A Visit from St. Nick" but as Americans we call the poem, "The Night Before Christmas." It was Moore who gave us the reindeer, and the sleigh, and the popping down the chimney thing. I don't think any of the Christian potential parents/parents who allow their children to have Santa during the holidays have ever sat their children down on the sofa one night and said, "Look, there's this guy name Santa, you have to believe he's a real person." Nope, but we do allow them to listen to the Christmas stories, and watch the Christmas specials, and sit on Santa's lap at the mall and ask him to bring them something special. And there's nothing wrong with that in the least. To call Christian parents liars because they allow their children to use their imagination during the holidays is absurd. None of us said it was ok to tell our children a lie...we just said that allowing our children to develop their imagination during the holidays is not sinful. No where in the scripture does it say my child can not and will not use their imagination ever, for fear of being declared a sinner. The whole Christmas holiday itself is just a melting pot of traditions. Nothing we celebrate during this time of the year is scriptural. Yeah, once upon a time Jesus was born, but according to historians it would be more believable that he was born during the spring because sheep herders would not be out in the middle of winter. Christmas trees, cards, gifts, celebrating Jesus' birth, Santa...it's all just a melting pot of traditions. I choose to celebrate Jesus birth on Christmas Eve with a candle light service, communion, and the reading of the birth from the Bible. I choose to celebrate Christmas morning by opening presents that are under the tree. And when my child comes he will have one under the tree from Santa. I choose to spend the rest of Christmas with family feeding my face. None of our Christmas traditions are scriptural...nothing we celebrate during this time of the year is based on anything that comes from the Bible. Over the years, Americans have just chosen what they want to celebrate during this time of the year. As Christians many of us celebrate Jesus' birth, and some of us throw a little saint (santa) in there as well. I think the Christians who have been participating in this discussion are perturbed because the people who do not allow Santa in their home are assuming that all other Christians are wrong and are in act sinning because they allow their children to believe. None of us are lying to our kids and telling them that Santa is a real person today (though he actually is based on a historical figure). We are allowing them to hear the stories, and believe what they want to believe during the season (until they are old enough to figure out that Santa doesn't really have flying reindeer). And I'll be sure my child does not visit Worthy during the holidays...