The Week's Wrap Up

The picture is my Dad forty years ago after fishing in the Delta around Stockton California. The other two people are my older sister Janice and her husband Ron. I posted this for Bill Crawford, Bayou Christian, who isn't blogging anymore but still has his blog open for information on the problems in the PCUSA. I'm hoping that if we keep some fish stories going he won't completely disappear.

My Mom and Dad loved fishing. I still remember waking up on the farm as a small girl to the smell of fish frying. Either my Dad or Mom or both would get up early and go down to the creek on our farm and catch breakfast. Usually it was catfish, so I still have a fondness for fried catfish.

Mom and Dad always wanted to retire to the Ozarks and spend the end of their lives fishing. As I have explained earlier they never made it that far. My Mother died the year before this picture was taken. My Father would die about a year after it was taken, so it is a special picture of mine.

My Dad had been a cowboy, a dairyman, a farmer and a truck driver. He always had a gun, not with him but in the house. What can you expect from someone who had been a cowboy and read Zane Grey Westerns. Anyway he always tried to get my sisters and me to keep a gun in the house; we always said no!

One day, not very long after the above picture was taken, my Dad was trying to do something with his gun; I don't remember what, but he shot himself in the foot. About a week later he went fishing with a cast on his foot, which would have been okay, but someone else in the river got in a bad spot and my Dad dove in after him forgetting that he had something heavy on his foot. Needless to say someone else had to rescue two people that day. So Bayou don't go fishing with anything heavy on your foot.

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This is a quote Jim Berkley, of the The Berkley Blog, sent me. He thought it was a good quote for Christian bloggers. So do I.
"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. ... "John Calvin (1509-1564)

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And this is a verse for all the Christian bloggers who were insulted and called names the last couple of weeks, for instance, "mud:"

"To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it." (Rev 2:17a)

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And last, but not least, Dave Moody, put this as a comment after one of my postings. It touched me enough and still does that I have no words to say after reading it:

"A prayer by St. Nikolai Velimirovic, a Serbian Orthodox bishop of the last century, who opposed Nazism and was eventually taken to Dachau. In this prayer he no doubt has in mind personal enemies, rather than national ones; the prayer is not intended as a guide for political and military decisions.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and
do not curse them.
Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more
than friends have. Friends have bound me to
earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and
have demolished all my aspirations in the world.
Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly
realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the
world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter
than an unhunted animal does, so have I,
persecuted by enemies, found the safest
sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your
tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies
can slay my soul. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even
I bless them and do not curse them.
They, rather than I, have confessed my sins
before the world.
They have punished me, whenever I have
hesitated to punish myself
They have tormented me, whenever I have tried
to flee torments.
They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered
myself
They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled
myself with arrogance.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and
do not curse them.
Whenever I have made myself wise, they have
called me foolish.
Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have
mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they
have shoved me into the background.
Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they
have prevented me with an iron hand.
Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully,
they have wakened me from sleep.
Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long
and tranquil life, they have demolished it and
driven me out.
Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world
and have stretched out my hands to the hem of
Your garment.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and
do not curse them.
Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and
make them even more bitterly against me:
so that my fleeing to You may have no return;
so that all hope in men may be scattered like
cobwebs;
so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my
soul;
so that my heart may become the grave of my
two evil twins: arrogance and anger;
so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;
ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-
deception, which has entangled me in the
dreadful web of illusory life.
Enemies have taught me to know what hardly
anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in
the world except himself.
One hates his enemies only when he fails to
realize that they are not enemies, but cruel
friends.
It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me
more good and who has done me more evil in the
world: friends or enemies.
Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my
enemies.
A slave curses enemies, for he does not
understand. But a son blesses them, for he
understands.
For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his
life. Therefore he freely steps among them and
prays to God for them.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and
do not curse them.
Green
www.frederica.com