I just want to praise the Lord today and express my thankfulness to Him for all that He has done for me. I peruse many blogspots by Christian ladies, usually younger ladies, and I am dismayed at how so many of them are filled with pride, as though by their own doing, their own hard work, cleverness, and piety, they have the good lives that they have. Websites for Christian women should be a blessing and instead, so many of them are just icky, making the readers feel inferior and beat-up, with their hands hanging at their sides, hopeless, because they have not been able to do what these other women have done. I was guilty of  being prideful like that when I was younger, thinking that everything I had came about because of my own hard work, cleverness and piety. Not that there is anything at all wrong with hard work, cleverness and piety; however, even those things are the blessings of the Lord -- the physical ability to work hard, a quick mind, and salvation that is not by works, lest any man should boast; the good deeds that He prepares in advance for us to walk in, and the ability to do them. Now that I am officially a "senior citizen", I look back and realize that everything I have -- my family and the things they taught me as a girl; my husband; my two boys, which God gave me the ability to conceive and bear; wonderful in-laws; a good education; careers and money; a safe, little town to live in; great neighbors; good health; strength to keep up my home and landscape my yard; cleverness to make do with less (I call it "the gift of scrounge"); access to a good Bible education and all the Christian books and resources I need -- why, the list can go on and on. I am just struck with how all of these things are the blessings of the Lord (and the Lord has blessed me in ways that He has not blessed others, and He has blessed others in ways that He has not blessed me -- it all balances out). Perhaps when these younger ladies get old like me, they, too, will realize the grace and mercy of God in their lives and not steal His glory. For me, I feel like I am repenting in sack-cloth and ashes a lot these days, like Job, for ever having thought that I was anybody, or that I was worthy or deserving of anything. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:6). 

I don't know why I am writing this, except that I am new to the internet, and computers in general. I have this Xanga site, have started blogging, and am thrilled with my new toy. I am having to learn some lessons, though. The other day, I was "sliced and diced" by a "Christian" on whose site I was blogging, because I didn't agree with her. Her articles are incendiary, and let's face it, when you poke people, they are going to poke back. Ok, I poked back. I mean, the blog is open to the public, and place was made for "comments." Nothing was said about the people who made comments having to agree with her. Well, I got "nuked!" It took me a day to stop shaking. Nobody (no Christian, that is) has ever talked to me that way before. I apologized profusely, and then apologized a second time.  I screwed up my courage and looked on the blog the next day, and lo and behold! Somebody defended me! My joy was short-lived, though. No sooner had I calmed down before  I got  called a "moron" by some other person on another blog about a video of Simon and Garfunkel. I had left a comment about how  I couldn't handle them looking so old.  Somebody replied, "You're going to get old, too...moron!"  Well, the newly savvy me, not such a neophyte when it comes to the internet any more, didn't get angry or upset. I simply replied, "I AM old, that is why it hurts so much. Thanks for the comments. You are right, we think too much about appearances." Why, I practically thanked him for calling me a moron! My husband said, "You should have said, 'You're going to get old, too, someday, you Young Twit...signed, The Old Moron!'" (Did I neglect to mention that my husband and I are originally from the New York City area? Guess I've temporarily lost my edge due to this new venue!) That's when my 19-year-old son, Joel, decided to step in and give me a crash course in "Blog Etiquette." Now, Joel has "social genius." From the time he was a very little boy, he has always known what to do in a social situation. He is Ann Landers re-incarnated. It is a gift. He didn't get it from me. You can't teach or pass on what you don't have. Whenever I am stumped in a social situation, I ask myself, "WWJD?", which, for me, means, "What Would Joel Do?" (In an earlier blog, I mentioned that our family no longer asks, "What Would Jesus Do?" because that leaves too much to our worldly imaginations. We now ask, "What DID Jesus Do?" and go to the Gospels to find out.) Anyway, Joel's pearls of wisdom were as follows: There are three kinds of bloggers -- 1) Those who think the world is out to get them; 2) The self-righteous; and 3) Those who cut themselves daily. He says I am in the third category, which is why I came unglued when I got nuked, and felt like I had to apologize abjectly (which I did). He said that I needn't have done that, as the woman was not very nice, being of the second category. He said that furthermore, I  REALLY  needn't have apologized the second time (which I also did), which was akin to rolling over and playing dead. ALSO, says Joel, there are different kinds of blog-spots. There are ones on which you may say anything, because they exist for the specific purpose of stirring up controversy.  That is the fun of it. When the blog-spot is about the person, however, that is, it sports pictures of the blogger and his or her family members and pets, it is an "I Love Me" blogspot, and the blogger wants only affirming or adoring comments.  Joel FURTHER stated that I shouldn't be writing THIS blog, as people may not understand the humorous vein in which it was written and take offense. (My Xanga friends wouldn't do that, would they?) Anyhow, he is staying at a neighbor's house this week, dog-sitting these miniature whippets, and can't see what I am doing. So, there you go! Any comments? I promise, you can disagree with me and I won't "nuke" you. Anybody out there had similar experiences? Share...!