train your daughter not to tolerate shit.

I wanna live in a world
Where people don't get hurt
Where everybody has got enough money
And nobody ever gets sick
I wanna live in a world
Where Santa's real. 💔

• Sasha Sloan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzCIeNhw8oE

https://youtu.be/xsJJJMGuf2c?si=-yMhQNX7OgYiDvXh

English For Ethiopia:

Confidentiality is not about confidence. It is about keeping secrets.

But:

Confidentiality is actually about the confidence you have of the information not being passed on to a third person.

Claudia had hoped that Christian visitors would comfort her by bringing some perspective on what she was going through. But their voices proved confusing, not consoling.

A deacon from her church solemnly advised her to reflect on what God was trying to teach her. “Surely something in your life must displease God,” he said. “Somewhere, you must have stepped out of his will. These things don’t just happen. God uses circumstances to warn us, and to punish us.What is he telling you?”

A few days later Claudia was surprised to see a woman from church whom she barely knew. Evidently, this plump, scatterbrained widow had adopted the role of professional cheerleader to the sick. She brought flowers, sang hymns, and stayed long enough to read some happy psalms about brooks running and mountains clapping their hands. Whenever Claudia tried to talk about her illness or prognosis, the woman quickly changed the subject, trying to combat the suffering with cheer and goodwill. But she only visited once, and after a while the flowers faded, the hymns seemed dissonant, and Claudia was left to face a new day of pain.
Another woman dropped by, a faithful follower of television faith healers. Exuding confidence, she assured Claudia that healing was her only escape. When Claudia told her about the deacon’s advice, this woman nearly exploded. “Sickness is never God’s will!” she exclaimed. “Haven’t you read the Bible? The Devil stalks us like a roaring lion, but God will deliver you if you can muster up enough faith to believe you’ll be healed. Remember, Claudia, faith can move mountains, and that includes Hodgkin’s disease. Simply name your promise, in faith, and then claim the victory.”
The next few mornings, as Claudia lay in the sterile cobalt treatment room, she tried to “muster up” faith. She wondered if she even understood the procedure. She did not question God’s supernatural power, but how to go about convincing God of her sincerity? Faith wasn’t like a muscle that could be enlarged through rehabilitation exercises. It was slippery, intangible, impossible to grasp. The whole notion of mustering up faith seemed awfully exhausting, and she could never decide what it really meant.

Perhaps the most “spiritual” woman in Claudia’s church brought along some books about praising God for everything that happens. “Claudia, you need to come to the place where you can say, ‘God, I love you for making me suffer like this. It is your will, and you know what’s best for me. And I praise you for loving me enough to allow me to experience this. In all things, including this, I give thanks.’”

As Claudia pondered the words, her mind filled with rather grotesque images of God. She envisioned a figure in the shape of a troll, big as the universe, who took delight in squeezing helpless humans between his fingernails, pulverizing them with his fists, dashing them against sharp
stones. The figure would torture these humans until they cried out, “God, I love you for doing this to me!” The idea repulsed Claudia, and she decided she could not worship or love such a God. Yet another visitor, Claudia’s pastor, made her feel she was on a select mission. He said, “Claudia, you have been appointed to suffer for Christ, and he will reward you. God chose you because of your great strength and integrity, just as he chose Job, and he is using you as an example to others. Their faith may increase because of your response.You should feel privileged, not bitter. What we see as adversity, God sees as opportunity.” He told her to think of herself as a track star, and to view adversity as the series of hurdles she would need to leap over on the way to the victory circle.

Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts (1990), p15

#books

Abusive relationship alert: I love you so much that if you don't love me back, I have a dark room downstairs that I prepared just to torture you with electricity.

Girls, don't marry such a guy if you find one. 😊