Source: (FB: 100806 2:31 Ramon E Mendoza)
Thursday, August 5, 2010

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.

She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.

She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.

When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.

She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside
the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.

On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyd

Sandra Entermann February 28

Grab yourself a Bible and have a quick read of Isaiah 58:13,14. I want you to do this because what is listed for memorisation is only a few snippets of those two texts, rather than the texts in their entirety.

If thou call the Sabbath a delight,
.....and shalt honour Him,
not doing thine own ways,
.....will cause thee to ride upon
the high places of the earth
(Isaiah 58:13,14)

The Clear Word, which is simply a paraphrase, puts it this way:

The Lord says, If you will stop trampling on the Sabbath -- pursuing your own interests and doing what you please on my holy day -- and start honouring the Sabbath instead, making it a delight, not doing your own work or talking about your own business on that day, but consider others -- then you will find the joy that comes from serving the Lord. I will cause you to be honoured all over the world, and you will delight yourselves in the inheritance that I promised to your Father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Wow it requires quite a bit of self-discipline to really keep our minds focused on spiritual things, doesm't it. But you know what? God never asks us to do something that is impossible. Let's really pray for one another this week, that next Sabbath we will make a conscientious effort to keep our conversation, as well as our conduct, holy.

Have a blessed week, friends in Jesus.

[Apologies, I know its been a long while, I'm not on Bebo that much, but today is a good enough reason to come in to shed light on the Origins of Valentines Day]

*Note there are other sources online for further study,
Source: http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/w...
**Video Links of Interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNzKE... | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex-nr...

What is the TRUE Origin of Valentine’s Day?

The Silence of Educators
Teachers are all too often silent about the origin of the customs they are forced to teach in today's schools! If they were to speak out, many would lose their jobs!

Isn't it time we examined why we encourage our children to celebrate St. Valentine's Day - when it is never mentioned in the Bible as a practice of the New Testament Church?

Today, candy makers unload tons of heart-shaped red boxes for February 14, while millions of the younger set are annually exchanging valentines. Florists consider February 14 - St. Valentine's Day - as one of their best business days. And young lovers pair off - at least for a dance or two - at St. Valentine's balls. WHY? Where did these customs originate? Where do we find any such practices in the Bible? How did we come to inherit these customs?

A Christian Custom?
Did you know that centuries before Christ, the pagan Romans celebrated February 15 and the evening of February 14 as an idolatrous and sensuous festival in honor of Lupercus, the "hunter of wolves"?

The Romans called the festival the Lupercalia. The custom of exchanging valentines and all the other traditions in honor of Lupercus - the deified hero-hunter of Rome - was also linked anciently with the pagan practice of teenagers "going steady." It usually led to fornication. Today, the custom of teenagers dating only one person on a regular basis is thought very modern. It isn't. It is merely a rebirth of an old custom "handed down from the Roman festival of the Lupercalia, celebrated in the month of February, when names of young women were put into a box and drawn out by men as chance directed." That's the admission of the Encyclopedia Americana article entitled St. Valentine's Day.

When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire there was some talk in church circles of discarding this pagan free-for-all. But the Roman citizens wouldn't hear of it! So it was agreed that the holiday would continue as it was, except for the more grossly sensual observances.

It was not until the reign of Pope Gelasius that the holiday became a Christian custom:

"As far back as 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia on February 15 to St. Valentine's Day on February 14." (page 172 of Customs and Holidays Around the World by Lavinia Dobler).

But how did this pagan festival acquire the name of St. Valentine's Day? And why is the little naked Cupid of pagan Rome so often associated today with February 14? And why do little children and young people still cut out hearts and send them on a day in honor of Lupercus, the hunter of wolves? Why have we supposed these pagan customs in honor of a false god are Christian?

Who was the original St. Valentine?
Valentine was a common Roman name. Roman parents often gave the name of their children in honor of the famous man who was first called Valentine in antiquity. That famous man was Lupercus, the hunter. But who was Lupercus? And why should he have also borne the name Valentine among the heathen Romans?

The Greeks called Lupercus by the name of Pan. The Semites called Pan Baul, according to the Classical Dictionaries. Baal - mentioned so often in the Bible - was merely another name for Nimrod, "the mighty hunter" (Genesis 10:9). It was a common proverb of ancient time that Nimrod was "the MIGHTY hunter before the Lord." Nimrod was their hero - their strong man - their VALENTINE!

How plain that the original Va