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| Greetings!
The Monthly welcomes new
writer, Susan Querry Graceson.
Susan Querry Graceson is
a Masters of Divinity Student at Wesley Theological Seminary.
She is a member of First Presbyterian, Arlington, where she
previously served on the Board of Deacons, and on the staff as
the Director of Children and Youth Ministry. Susan currently
chairs the Worship Ministry Team there. She lives in Falls
Church, Virginia, with her husband David, who serves on the
Session at First Pres., and their two sons Sammy (12) and
Carter (9). Their household also includes 2 guinea pigs and 3
cats.
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| SILENCE,
PLEASE!- by Ruth Everhart |
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Last night I dreamt
I went to the monastery again. It seemed to me I stood
outside the brick pillars that mark the drive and for a
while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me.*
You clear your desk on a Monday morning, and
pack lightly. You drive toward Berryville, Virginia and
wonder if you brought enough books.
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| GONE TO
MEDDLING - by Aaron Fulp-Eickstaedt |
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Theres a great story
about the little country church somewhere in the South.
The pastor is preaching along in the great hellfire and
brimstone tradition and hes condemning all sorts of
behaviors as sinful. Men, if you want to be right with
God, you are going to have to quit smoking cigars.
Everybody yells Amen. You are going to have to stop
smoking cigarettes. Again, everybody shouts Amen. You
are going to have stop running around with women. Amen.
You are going to have give up that demon whiskey! Again,
the Amens ring out. Then he says, And you are going to
have to give up dipping snuff. The sanctuary gets very
quiet, and a little old lady with teeth stained yellow
and a snuff can in her hand stands up and says, Well,
Preacher, now youve done it. Youve quit preaching and
done gone to meddling.
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| BEING
CREATIVE- by Bev and Knox Swayze |
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One of the joys of
parenting is trying to think up creative ways to
discipline ones teenage son or daughter. Now some of
you will have had no problems with discipline of your
teenager (God bless you!) while others of you know
exactly what we are writing about. Gone are the days
when your young child dissolved into tears just by the
raising of your voice. Now yelling appears to be your
teenagers M.O. and you are faced with what type of
discipline Ground them? (But thats a punishment for
the parents as well) Take away the cell phone? (The
equivalent of taking away ones pacemaker.) What should
we do?
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| THE POWER
OF MANY - by John Wimberly |
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For some reason, the
church doesnt like to talk about the business part of
its life. But any entity that receives
thousands/millions of dollars in revenues, has expenses
of thousands/millions of dollars, and has thousands of
employees is a business. It would be simply divine if
the Presbytery exerted some leadership in making us
better stewards of our resources. Stewardship isnt just
about raising money. It is about how we use our
money.
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