From time to time I coast on over to some of your blogs, and you readers are a very interesting and diverse group of ladies. So I am inviting you all to a blog party hosted by the Femina Girls. (This was Heather’s good idea.) I will hang the streamers, Bekah will make the coffee, Heather’s making some killer rum cake, and Rachel is just going to sit on the couch and knit (she’s entitled to this since she is seven months along).
How do you come to this party? Well, just drop a comment introducing yourself (a couple of sentences would do it), tell us about your blog, and leave a link. Then we can tour the readers’ blogs and get to know each other. You can even post a note on your blog to all the Femina readers if you want. Maybe Valerie can figure out how to post a group wave. See you here!
When we come to discuss particular points of social etiquette, it’s important to look at the big, bigger, and biggest picture. Most of the rules regarding manners were established hundreds of years ago and have been honored and acknowledged for generations by our own ancestors and all their aunts and uncles. I dare say that your great-grandma was telling your grandfather at the table not to chew with his mouth open, to put his napkin on his lap, and not to talk with his mouth full. Let’s hear it for good manners! But manners were made for man, not man for the manners.
A bunch of these older traditions and social expectations have morphed and evolved into their present forms, and for good reason. I can remember reading through a old book on etiquette and breathing a sigh of relief that we have moved on from some of those out-dated customs. But we still have many cultural expectations, especially regarding weddings and showers, funerals Continue reading ‘Messing with Manners’
My husband can tell what kind of week I am having by the number of clean (ironed) shirts in his closet. If he only has one shirt to choose from each morning, that means I am barely keeping up, probably only one eyeball above the water. And that’s the kind of week this has been. But now I have cleared all the big hurdles of the week, and Bekah is fixing homemade pizza for dinner. ( How nice is that?)
Today is Hero Sidney Merkle’s seventh birthday, and she requested homemade pizza. (I’m so glad she didn’t ask for corndogs!) I had the pleasure of taking her out for a birthday date after school. First we got a sparkle mini donut at Starbucks and chocolate milk to go with it. Then we hit the sale rack at Old Navy. Now isn’t this adorable? And tomorrow I may get some shirts ironed!
Sandi Boswell has another good piece (it is in response to a comment, so look below her article) on the why’s and why not’s of shower giving. The thing I always appreciate about Sandi is her gracious way of tackling thorny issues. She knows there is always a deeper right than being right. (There is a rude way of correcting someone’s rudeness.) So if our friends and relatives are falling short on some of the rules of etiquette, whether it is on this topic or on others, we are not to look down our noses at them, but attribute the best of motives. Love covers it. And love is the thing we are striving for in all our applications of etiquette.
If you drop in over on Nate’s blog, not only will you see his pet raggant from the Cupboards, but you’ll also get to see his interview on Better Homes TV (and a picture of him as a kid holding a crawdad). Though they incorrectly called him a Kansas boy (not sure he’s ever set foot in Kansas…he’s as Idaho as they come), his mom (that’s me) was born in Kansas, so maybe that’s why he sets his story in the sunflower state. It’s also important to note that the beautiful scenery footage is not Kansas, but our own rolling hills on the Palouse. You won’t find that in Kansas!
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. James 5:16.
Sometimes we are greatly encouraged by the prayers of our faithful friends, and it is of great use to us to share our sins and temptations with one another. James points out that when a godly person prays for us, much is accomplished. If we act as though we don’t sin or we don’t need prayer, I John 1:8-10 says, “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgiven us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
It is clear that we all need forgiveness, and we need to extend forgiveness to one another. These verses do not mean that we need someone (a priest) to Continue reading ‘The Over-Rated Virtue of Transparency’
Recent Comments