Woke up a bit depressed, but thankful that being at church and being IN church helped immensely. Arranged the roses which looked so colorful---pastels, red and yellow (Fresh Market had them for $6.99/dozen) and it's always nice when the expense is manageable, even though I get re-imbursed. One of the older women at church thanked me for doing the flowers on a regular basis, saying how expensive it would be for a florist to do them. A little praise goes a long way, especially when I rarely hear any comments. I think it's easy for all of us to take one another for granted, when a bit of an honest compliment is never inappropriate.
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Our priest talked about a convention that was held in Texas earlier this month. The Anglicans coming out strong against same-sex marriage, female priests and the sermon today was all about it...how the church is the Bride of Christ, and it's clearly inappropriate for the priest/minister to be a woman. Men and women do have separate roles in life, like it or not. He said it much more eloquently than I ever could, going into beautiful detail. (My vocabulary has suffered greatly with the stress of the past few months---not kidding, so my thoughts tend to be on a fourth-grade level.) Anyway, among other things our priest shared about a woman who used to be an Episcopal priest and felt the Lord convicting her to renounce her vows, which she did, and she now speaks against the ordination of women. Her life has even been threatened because of her decision. Isn't that just ridiculous?
Very grateful to be part of a church which follows historic tradition regarding such important issues. Truly, if the church becomes so enamored in overlooking blatant sin, we're sunk. The trend I'm seeing in friends who are in their thirties and pastoring in other denominations is to be so sympathetic to the varied lifestyles of their parishioners that they just give a passing glance to what used to be (in their eyes) considered sinful behavior. Love the sinner/hate the sin has become love the sinner and ignore the sin. They forget (as my husband says) that God is Holy. He'll say, "Yes, God is love, but He's also Holy and can't look on sin." We're all about looking on sin and enjoying every minute.
Personally I don't get the attraction to being knee-deep in blatant sin. Doesn't it get weighty and tiresome? How can it be better than a life free from that burden? With our sons, I just don't get it. And good grief, they didn't just pick lifestyles that border on evil, but they wanted the whole meal. Maybe that's part of my reason for being so adamant in my beliefs, and so joyful at being part of a church with a strong stance. Love hearing the passion in our priest's voice and other members when we agree on these things. Several folks nodded their head during the sermon, my husband even slipping in a quiet Amen. His Baptist side creeps in every once in awhile.
