This was a response to a comment posted by a friend.  I slightly altered the post here as I had forgotten to include my experiences with unmarried women when responding to the original comment.  But this is the full text otherwise.  O and I added pictures because hey, i can, it’s my blog, haha

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Comment

Two things can happen if you finally figure someone out, 1. You see that their genuine and a great person and you begin to care about that person then that leads to lust or envy which is a sin or 2. You find out their fake and living a lie then you begin to feel sorry for them then hate comes in the picture because you see what a waste it is of a good life….

My response

Ah this is one I can speak on with authority – or well, experience at least 🙂

Fortunately there are more than the two options suggested, yay!

In my line of work as a software consultant, I often work away from home. This last stint in the UK started off as a year-long contract. Ended up being a three year tour when all was said and done. Family were there with me for about 8 months during that time.

The rest of the time was just me, stress, lots of work, a lot of free time, eating, drinking, and scores of young attractive co-workers hanging on my every word, just waiting for any opportunity for us to get to know each other better. Nudge nudge wink wink.  Or cruising for “friendship” from girls in the red light districts if I didn’t want an office scandal on my hands.

Ok, that was the imagined life. The reality was that there was indeed stress, lots of work and *some* free time when I wasn’t working 10 to 12-hour days and wasn’t trying to hail my family on different frequencies. The co-worker/working girl thing? Well thankfully I’d prayed some prayers years ago which God was all to willing to grant.

I didn’t ask God to keep me from temptation, nor to deliver me from evil. Those are part of life, so I knew I needed to know how to deal with both. Instead I prayed He would to turn the scent and thrill of unfaithful desire into a rancid taste. And prayed that I would see past a beautiful face and personality to see the wonderful home and family she was building with her husband.

And I prayed that as and when a counseling moment might arise where she’d ask for input, I’d respond in a way that would honor the precious life she and her spouse were crafting before their children’s eyes.

And if she wasn’t married, had no kids, or was in an unhappy marriage?  Fortunately God had given insight into how relationships are more than what is shared with the family members.

Actions we take that “would never be found out” still ripple down our family lifeline, shaking things up and tossing the ship asunder.  Or they can vibrate down the family lifeline, creating the music we’ve promised to create with our spouse, soothing and encouraging our children and parents.  Or a combination of both.

So no, thankfully any temptation to “go out for a coffee maybe”, “sneak off for a quick quiet nip at the pub”, or “say love, how’s about a little excitement tonight” was water off a duck’s back.

That’s probably been the best set of prayers I’ve ever prayed for my life guidance – in this way I protect many hearts from despair.

As for option #2? Heh Shakespeare said it best – we are indeed merely players on the vast stage. Fortunately we’ve an earthly and church family who can help us stay on queue, and realise we’re still beautiful – even after the greasepaint comes off and we think no one’s around to peek at us.

the moose on the loose had a juice for the goose

but the noise that they made was too loud, i must say

it shook all the doors and the floors in the stores

and when they were done we were all on the run

Verrrry interesting.  A plethora of web articles like this one claim explicitly that the “Spongebob Squarepants” show has been blamed for poor study and attention span in children. (See this news stream and pick any article at random)

Others claim – such as this one –  that watching shows like the “Spongebob Squarepants” show is cited in a report as being the cause of the deficient behaviour.

However I took time to actually READ the report instead of giving it a quick gloss-over scan… The original can be found here if one chooses to take time to read it.   I’ve copied it to this post here also: peds.2010-1919.full[1]

Nowhere does the report name any particular show (or shows) it used for testing, with the exception of gov’t-sponsored Sesame Street.

Meaning the Scary Headlines are, as usual, suspect and lack factual information.  I do have to admit using a well-known cartoon caught my eye, but then again so would a fish hook.  And I’m not a fan of either method of grabbing one’s attention.

If the writers really didn’t mean to mislead the reader, then it’s too bad they didn’t take time to actually read the publication before blasting out an article based on half-read details mixed in with personal interests and agendas.

Or were they too distracted by TV to pay attention?