I was at the grocery store earlier this evening, contemplating what type of Chinese food I wanted to buy from the Hot Wok when I overheard a conversation between a deli clerk and a customer. What caught my attention was the comment on how most people have at least once divorce before they marry, and that when two people didn't love each other anymore, divorce was perfectly ok. The customer then went on to say that when she and her husband married, they didn't use 'til death do us part' in their vows, but 'as long as we love each other'.
That has to be one of the saddest things I've ever heard...and it reflects a common lack of understanding in our culture today, one that's also unfortunately crept into the body of Christ. That wonderful giddy feeling you have when you first fall in love is special and fun, but it's not love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. Just so you don't have to go elsewhere to read it, here it is:
Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails.True love is a lifelong commitment that continues
despite the fluctuation of feelings, and I believe it's something so valuable that to be gifted with it is a blessing beyond measure. Work, yes, but it returns far more than one could ever imagine.
What does it mean to love? Let's examine the qualities a bit closer, beginning with the word 'Love' as used in these verses.
Love - from the Strong's concordance (all definitions are from Strong's unless I state otherwise): brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence.
is patient - to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles; to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others; to be mild and slow in avenging; to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish.
is kind - to show one's self mild, to be kind, use kindness. What does kind mean? From M-W.com: AFFECTIONATE, LOVING; of a sympathetic or helpful nature; of a forbearing nature : GENTLE: arising from or characterized by sympathy or forbearance.
is not jealous - to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger.
does not brag - to boast one's self; a self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one's self excessively. From M-W.com: a pompous or boastful statement; arrogant talk or manner : COCKINESS; engage in self-glorification
is not arrogant - to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up; to puff up, make proud; to be puffed up, to bear one's self loftily, be proud. From M-W.com: exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate one's own worth or importance in an overbearing manner
does not act unbecomingly - From M-W.com: unbecomingly - not according with the standards appropriate to one's position or condition of life
it does not seek its own -
seek - to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after; to seek i.e. require, demand; to crave, demand something from someone
own - From M-W.com: to have power over : CONTROL
is not provoked - to irritate, provoke, arouse to anger; to scorn, despise; provoke, make angry; to exasperate, to burn with anger
does not take into account - to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over; to take into account, to make an account of to consider, take into account, weigh, meditate on; to suppose, deem, judge; to determine, purpose, decide.
This word deals with reality. If I "logizomai" or reckon that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers to facts not suppositions.
a wrong suffered - wrong: of a bad nature; not such as it ought to be; of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting
base, wrong, wicked; troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, baneful
does not rejoice - be glad
in unrighteousness - a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness
but rejoices - take part in another's joy; to rejoice together, to congratulate
with the truth - what is true in any matter under consideration; truly, in truth, according to truth; of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly
bears all things - to cover over with silence; to keep secret; to hide, conceal; of the errors and faults of others
believes all things - to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in; of the thing believed
to credit, have confidence
hopes all things - hopefully to trust in. From M-W.com: Hope - to desire with expectation of obtainment
2 : to expect with confidence : TRUST
endures all things - to endure, bear bravely and calmly: ill treatments. From M-W.com: endure - to remain firm under suffering or misfortune without yielding. BEAR, CONTINUE
Love never - from M-W.com: not ever : at no time
fails - to descend from a higher place to a lower; to fall (either from or upon); metaph. to fall under judgment, came under condemnation.
And that, my friends, is love...something to think about!
Today at work I finally crossed over to the dark side. What does that mean, you ask? Well, I'll tell you...for the last year and a half I've been the lead proofreader at the company I work for, and while I've had to deal with many issues, I've never had to fully exert my supervisory powers. That ended today, unfortunately. I had to give one of the proofreaders a verbal warning which is two steps away from being fired. I'm not happy about the need to do this, but was left with no choice.
As 4pm approached, my stomach got queasier and queasier, and I got more nervous. 4pm was D-day, the time I'd set aside to talk with the proofreader I've been having issues with, and I wasn't looking forward to it. That didn't mean I wasn't going to deal with it, though...if I avoided it, the problems would only get worse and that would reflect poorly on me as a lead.
I spent my break sitting outside praying, and as it got closer to 4pm and I got more nervous, I went into the ladies room to pray some more.
To my amazement, talking with the proofer went really well!!! She told me she expected something like this, and we had a great talk about the issue, and I assured her that my goal was to help her improve and excel at her job, not boot her because she'd messed up. We agreed that I'll let her know when she's pushing the limits with talking, and that her goal the next few months is to do her best as a proofreader so that she can move on into new areas in the company.
I love it when things work out that well, even though I was a stress-case beforehand! But still, I'm no longer one of the workers, but have crossed the line over to the dark side of supervising
Moving on to something more lighthearted...double-dipping. I hate double-dipping, and once in awhile another person at work will have some asparagus from my plate of vegetables and she'll dip it into the dressing, take a big old bite, then dip it into the dressing again!
I tell you, it ruins the dressing for me, and I end up not using it again. I don't want to share germs with a stranger! I don't even share germs with my family! The only person I plan on sharing germs with is a husband, and if I ever have children, with them as well. Other than that, no voluntary germ sharing for me.
I tried some Romanian food at lunch today! One of the typists is an immigrant from Romania, and every now and then she'll bring in something that's native to her country. Today it was cabbage rolls, and she gave me two of them for lunch. They were so good! I wanted more
The weather is gorgeous again today...I know I've already raved about it, but I can't help myself! I love spring! I think one of the neat things about it is the hope and rebirth it represents after a long dreary winter. It brings to mind a favorite portion of scripture:
For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!
~ Song of Solomon 2:11-13 ~Spring is wonderful :) I think I'm stricken with a case of spring fever!
A funny thing happened at work about 15 minutes before it was time for me to leave...I've been training new proofreaders for the last few weeks, and one of the women who started last week is an older lady who seems to be very particular and detail oriented. I've had some reservations about her, but am giving her a chance. At times it seems like she's trying to force her opinion on me, but I just act oblivious when that happens
Seriously though, I've found that politely ignoring that kind of thing and continuing on with what I'm doing works best in this kind of situation.
Anyway, back to what happened before I left work. This new proofer (let's call her Charlotte [names changed to protect the innocent
]) was asking me if there were any spaces left for proofreaders to sit, and I went over a few with her, but let her know that there's really no place else other than where she currently sits. She wanted to talk with me privately, so we went into my office (the breakroom!), shut the door and she told me what was going on.
Turns out Charlotte wants to sit someplace else because she was offended by one of the new typists. Two new typists began working today, and she's sitting between them. Apparently she's getting along well with the male typist, and he was telling her stories about police work. He was launching into a story about hearing a couple having an amorous encounter in some bushes, when the other new typist, a female, asked that the story be kept clean. Charlotte told me she was offended and didn't want to sit next to a prude who would stifle conversations, and that 'authoritative religious types' got on her nerves
Methinks the woman doesn't know that I'm an 'authoritative religious type' by her definition! She then went on to say that she thinks that many of the women in Sacramento live in a bubble and can't handle 'real' life
I wish I'd thought of this when we were talking, but I should have told her that we need to be tolerant of those with different beliefs and accept them. Would have been fun to feed the mantra of the not-so-tolerant left back to her in regards to the religious right. Not in a mean way, you understand...but to make a point and possibly make her think.
I love the double standard of the left!!!
Well, it was a long and exhausting day...did I forget to mention how it began at work? I did? Well, let me tell ya then
We were supposed to get two new temp typists, one new temp proofreader and one new temp transmitter today. All of them were supposed to arrive at 830am. Well, the first new proofreader arrived at 7:45am, so I showed him the breakroom and the coffee machine, and told him I'd be with him at 8:30. Then another temp showed up for typing, so I took her to the typist who'd be training her. Then another temp showed up, and another temp, and another temp and ANOTHER TEMP! What on earth was I supposed to DO with all of them???
It took me a few minutes, but I finally sorted everything out and got everyone where they needed to be, and was then able to do a quick orientation with my 3 new people.
I ended up having to train 2 proofreaders at the same time while Adrian, my backup, trained the other temp on the computer side of proofreading.
What a day!!! I was so ready to leave at 5pm, and I practically RAN out the door! Now all I can think of is this:
Goodnight, y'all
So here it is, nearing 3:30pm on a Sunday afternoon, and it's been a good one
While I didn't go to church (I really do need to find a new one and not let fear of trying something different keep me from checking out some nearby churches), I did get quite a bit accomplished already today.
I was up around 8am, showered, dressed in my exercise clothes, and I rode my bike for around 2.5 miles. I came home, got some clothes together that needed washing, wrote up a shopping list for the week, then headed off to the laundromat, threw my clothes in a washer, drove to Raley's (which is right across the street from the laundromat), did my shopping, got my clothes from the laundromat, stopped at the little burger drive-thru near my house and bought some teriyaki beef over fried rice and a large plain iced tea, came home, hung my clothes up to dry and opened all the windows in the house.
Since then I've straightened up my living and dining rooms and cleaned up all the clutter
I still need to wash the dishes and sweep and mop the kitchen floor, but after that I'm done for the day.
Oh, wait...not quite done. I still need to clean and cut up the vegetables I bought this morning and divvy them up into small plastic baggies and then separate them into gallon sized plastic baggies for snacks at work during the coming week. I find that doing that makes it easier for me to eat well during the week, and I like that.
The window in my computer room faces the front yard, and has a lovely view...the camellia bush to the right of the window, the foliage of the avocado tree (which has only borne 3 or 4 avocados in all the years I've lived here), my front yard, and across the street a HUGE tree in the neighbor's yard. About 15 minutes ago someone pulled up in a silver Prowler and visited another neighbor. He was out just a few minutes ago with a small boy, showing him how to use a remote control metallic lime green Prowler that played music when it was driving...way cute!
The official first day of spring is March 20th, but it's here NOW!!! Each year I realize just how much I love spring, and this year is no exception
I love to visit
Daffodil Hill, which is south of Sacramento in Amador County, and the
Biblical Gardens just north of Auburn is also a great destination for a Saturday drive.
I'm gonna be bad this afternoon and bake some brownies and then try to make some
ganache and use it as frosting for them. I don't often get chocolate cravings, but when I do, I want
GOOD chocolate!
Blossom
is in heat again...I really need to get her spayed! At least there's no danger of kittens. She's an indoor only cat, and Riley is neutered, although I do love kittens.
Now off to finish cleaning the kitchen...not a favorite job, but a necessary one!
