Give Me a Sign God

Conversation with my almost four-year-old son on our walk home from Starbuck's tonight:

Him: Mom, what's that sign say?
Me (helping him sound out the words): Right turn only.
Him: Right turn only. That's going to be my memory verse for today.

Little Laugh From Sara

After teasing my husband about not liking to have lights on in the house at night...

Him: Has anyone ever told you you're mean?
Me: No! (pause) They're too scared.

Ha! Well, I thought I was funny.

After Years of Mystery...

There is no more wondering about which Springfield the Simpsons' home is in.

Deja Vu

After studying through Jonah as I had mentioned in an earlier post, I just kept on reading and went through Micah. There were a couple of verses in chapter two that I found really interesting. To summarize the situation, Micah is living during this time where no one in Israel is following God. They have all turned to foreign gods and are doing whatever they darn well please. Micah is a prophet appointed by God, but not accepted by the nation's leaders. In fact, they have even apparently appointed their own prophets. Micah's message is of doom (followed by reconciliation, but mostly doom) for the nation and no one wants to hear that.

Here's verse six: "Do not prophesy,” their prophets say. “Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”


And, my favorite, verse 11: If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ he would be just the prophet for this people!


So, I'm reading this and thinking about how far these people have strayed from God. And then I started wondering if this is at all like the church today. I don't mean that the American church has completely turned from God, but I'm wondering: Are there Biblical truths that are "unacceptable" within the church? Do we try as best we can to ignore those teachers whose messages make us uncomfortable (regardless of whether they speak the truth) and surround ourselves with teachers who give us messages of comfort and prosperity (even if it's a little off the mark biblically)? Although I can't think of a real concrete example, there's something about Israel's response to Micah that feels vaguely familiar.... Is it just me?

Okie Tan

Growing up, I used the term "okie tan" to describe the sun tan lines you get from wearing a t-shirt. Everyone I knew in my hometown of Bakersfield, California called it the same thing. I moved away to the big, big city of Fresno and heard a friend say "farmer tan" (or "farmer's tan") to describe that distintive tan. I had never heard that term before. The conversation probably went something like this:

friend: ...So now I've got this dumb farmer tan.
me: What?
friend: My farmer tan.
me: What?
friend (impatiently): My farmer tan. I've got a farmer tan. See? <pulling up short sleeve to reveal contrasting skin tones>
me: Oh! You mean an okie tan!
friend: What?
me: An okie tan.
friend: What?
me (impatiently): An okie tan!!! <pulling up my own short sleeve to reveal contrasting skin tones>

Of course, that's how a lot of my conversations go... So, I've been thinking about this recently and googled "okie tan". The search turned up ONE occurrence of its use.... by a girl in Delano (a city 30 miles north of Bakersfield). So apparently the use of this phrase is limited to a very small region although it is widely used within that region. Isn't that weird?

Have you ever heard "okie tan" before? What term do you use to describe a t-shirt shaped tan? And where did you learn that term? Leave a comment.