Today's Joy Dare Prompt: 3 Gifts Before 11am
My list (picking up from the last list - and often adding more than just the prompt):
563.Chocolates from my secret santa at work (yes, before 11am)
564. Sunrise over the snowy trees
565. Croissant & coffee breakfast
566. Olympic closing ceremony
567. Beautiful story about an Olympic athlete finding her birth family
568. Speakers are all installed in Vespera & Niteo's apartment downstairs!
569. Grocery shopping with Niteo
570. It is a gift to know and experience the seasons!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Joy Dare - Feb 23
Today's Joy Dare Prompt: A Gift of Tin, Glass, Wood
My list (picking up from the last list):
560. Cans of coconut milk from Trader Joe's
561. Glass butterfly plant stake
562. Round wooden pieces my dad made to make Vespera's speakers fit
My list (picking up from the last list):
560. Cans of coconut milk from Trader Joe's
561. Glass butterfly plant stake
562. Round wooden pieces my dad made to make Vespera's speakers fit
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Joy Dare - Feb 22
Today's Joy Dare Prompt: 3 Gifts That Changed Today
My list (picking up from the last list):
557. Sleeping in
558. This American Life podcast over breakfast
559. Waking up to find that it's Saturday, though yesterday felt like Saturday, too, with Mango's snow day!
My list (picking up from the last list):
557. Sleeping in
558. This American Life podcast over breakfast
559. Waking up to find that it's Saturday, though yesterday felt like Saturday, too, with Mango's snow day!
Friday, February 21, 2014
Joy Dare - Feb 21
Today's Joy Dare Prompt: 3 Things White
Bwaaaaahahahahahahaha!!! 8 inches of snow in MN is definitely something white. I suppose it's a gift since school got cancelled and Mango can spend the day at home...and we have a fireplace...and plenty of food in the house...and warm blankets...
My list (picking up from the last list):
554. SNOW DAY!
555. My wedding veil hanging in my closet
556. Little white underdress in the cedar chest from Mane's dedication
Bwaaaaahahahahahahaha!!! 8 inches of snow in MN is definitely something white. I suppose it's a gift since school got cancelled and Mango can spend the day at home...and we have a fireplace...and plenty of food in the house...and warm blankets...
My list (picking up from the last list):
554. SNOW DAY!
555. My wedding veil hanging in my closet
556. Little white underdress in the cedar chest from Mane's dedication
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Joy Dare - Feb 20
February Joy Dare Prompts (think of 3 gifts for each day - use prompts if you want!):
20. A Gift at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
My list (picking up from the last list):
551. Mango's breakfasts every weekend
552. Lunch with Bible Study peeps
553. Mango always says, "This is EXACTLY what I wanted!" And he means it...every.single.time.
20. A Gift at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
My list (picking up from the last list):
551. Mango's breakfasts every weekend
552. Lunch with Bible Study peeps
553. Mango always says, "This is EXACTLY what I wanted!" And he means it...every.single.time.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Lashon Hara
At Bible Study last Wednesday, we talked about the power of naming things, the power of writing down the gifts we have been give. Ann Voskamp mentions how the first job of Adam was to name the animals. We are a people who count and name and label. How powerful it is when the things we name and label and count are gifts, gratitudes, thanks... I was reminded of the Hebrew term "Lashon Hara," or "evil language," as a kind of inverse of speaking gratitude.
Leviticus 19:16 says, "Do not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord." Here is the scripture from the Torah that is most frequently cited against Lashon Hara, a scripture that brings lashon hara right up against LIFE. Words have the power of life and, conversely, the power of death. Consequently, the Jewish rabbis have written numerous hedge laws to prevent people from accidentally participating in lashon hara, and the Jewish people acknowledge the harm that has been done in the world through lashon hara. For example (from chabad.org):
So easy to speak something...and yet so difficult sometimes. Why does it sometimes seem like it's easier to "name" the difficult things, the problems, the hurts, the frustrations, the pain, lashon hara? Why must we train ourselves in order to name the gifts, the positive things, the gratitude, the thanksgiving, eucharisteo?
Yet, we must. We must train ourselves to name our gifts. In naming them, we draw attention to them and to the One who gave them. In naming them, we affect those three people from the quote above: the person speaking, the person spoken about, and the person spoken to. We give life, rather than speaking against it.
Leviticus 19:16 says, "Do not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord." Here is the scripture from the Torah that is most frequently cited against Lashon Hara, a scripture that brings lashon hara right up against LIFE. Words have the power of life and, conversely, the power of death. Consequently, the Jewish rabbis have written numerous hedge laws to prevent people from accidentally participating in lashon hara, and the Jewish people acknowledge the harm that has been done in the world through lashon hara. For example (from chabad.org):
When Miriam spoke negatively about her brother, Moses, she was rebuked by G‑d and afflicted with the skin disease.
The spies who were sent soon afterwards to Israel did not take a lesson from this story, and they too spoke negatively—about the land of Israel. The result was that the Israelites of that generation all died in the desert.Another fabulous article from Judaism 101 tells us these things about lashon hara:
The Talmud tells that the tongue is an instrument so dangerous that it must be kept hidden from view, behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its misuse.
The person who listens to gossip is even worse than the person who tells it, because no harm could be done by gossip if no one listened to it. It has been said that lashon ha-ra (disparaging speech) kills three: the person who speaks it, the person who hears it, and the person about whom it is told.An article at Aish.com describes the 3 people hurt by lashon hara in this way:
We see, in these articles, how words have changed the history of the Jewish people...and the world (Adam & Eve, Joseph, Miriam, the spies that went out ahead into the promised land...) How powerful words can be. And how easy it is to use them. It's so much more difficult to commit other acts, either positive or negative, toward others. It's much harder to DO something. But it's so easy to SPEAK something.
- The person speaking: Although you briefly become the center of attention when you dish out a juicy piece of gossip, in the long run people start mistrusting you. ...
- The person spoken about: The person under discussion is, of course, being killed in everyone's eyes. Whether the information is true or false, it is hard to take back defamatory words already spoken and undo the character assassination already committed. ...
- The person spoken to: ...the Talmud says that listening to lashon hara is even worse than speaking it; the person had the power to stop it and didn't. Now the transgression is complete.
So easy to speak something...and yet so difficult sometimes. Why does it sometimes seem like it's easier to "name" the difficult things, the problems, the hurts, the frustrations, the pain, lashon hara? Why must we train ourselves in order to name the gifts, the positive things, the gratitude, the thanksgiving, eucharisteo?
Yet, we must. We must train ourselves to name our gifts. In naming them, we draw attention to them and to the One who gave them. In naming them, we affect those three people from the quote above: the person speaking, the person spoken about, and the person spoken to. We give life, rather than speaking against it.
Joy Dare - Feb 17-19
February Joy Dare Prompts (think of 3 gifts for each day - use prompts if you want!):
17. 3 Gifts Found in Giving/Serving
18. 3 Gifts on Paper
19. 3 Gifts that were Plan B's
My list (picking up from the last list):
542. Less time to worry about my own stuff
543. In serving/facilitating Bible Study, I review materials ahead of time and do my own research...and get more out of the whole thing than I would otherwise.
544. In Giving our Team Yarn stuff, we find that there are more good people in the world than I often think
545. Mane's cheerful plant drawing hanging on my fridge
546. The notes Dr. P drew for Mane while were in his office to help us all understand
547. Graph paper pictures Mane is learning right now
548. Adopting a teenager
549. Living downstairs from Mango's parents
550. Moving Mane's bedroom
17. 3 Gifts Found in Giving/Serving
18. 3 Gifts on Paper
19. 3 Gifts that were Plan B's
My list (picking up from the last list):
542. Less time to worry about my own stuff
543. In serving/facilitating Bible Study, I review materials ahead of time and do my own research...and get more out of the whole thing than I would otherwise.
544. In Giving our Team Yarn stuff, we find that there are more good people in the world than I often think
545. Mane's cheerful plant drawing hanging on my fridge
546. The notes Dr. P drew for Mane while were in his office to help us all understand
547. Graph paper pictures Mane is learning right now
548. Adopting a teenager
549. Living downstairs from Mango's parents
550. Moving Mane's bedroom
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