We interrupt this blog......

to bring you this important public service announcement:

I am generally a rather thick-skinned person.  Having gone through my elementary and secondary school years being teased about everything from my physical appearance to my intelligence, I finally learned a few years ago (or so I thought) to let others' opinions of me roll off like water from a duck's back.  Same with thinly veiled comments made not to me but in my hearing, that belittle and deride choices I've made, the background to which the speaker has no clue.

That's not to say that stuff like that doesn't hurt, it does.

Now, if I were a perfect person, I'd just decide not to be bothered by things that would hurt and insult someone who isn't perfect.  I could just chalk those comments and digs up to the fact that the person really didn't realize that what they just said was hurtful, or that I somehow ended up on the receiving end of that link to an article or video because the sender forwards a lot of stuff on to me, and temporarily forgot that maybe I'm passionate about that issue in the opposite direction.

Not to say I don't ever want anyone to disagree with me.  I'm just coming from a different place than a lot of people I know, and so I see some things differently.

Fact is, I'm divorced.  Quite necessarily and happily.  If you don't know the backstory, get to know me well enough to ask, and I'll be happy to tell you.  In the meantime, please don't have a loud conversation with a mutual friend about how you don't see how anyone could ever do anything so evil as get a divorce WHILE LOOKING AT ME SIDEWAYS.

Another fact:  I'm proud to have served the USA as an honorably discharged, decorated member of the US Army.  I spent a year at an "expendable" artillery base at the eastern edge of Europe as part of that service.  An "expendable" base is one that is a giveaway to the enemy (at that time the Soviet Union) in the event of shots-being-fired hostilities arising. So I guess you could say that while I was never in a war zone, I was in harm's way during that time, and I was there willingly.

Fact #3: I personally find it next to impossible to evangelize when I am surrounded by people who are just like me in terms of faith and belief. I find it much easier to pray for people if I've met them AND I KNOW WHO THEY ARE.

Final fact (for this post, anyway):  I'm doing the best I can, with what I've been given to work with.  Sometimes that's more than enough, but sometimes it isn't.  However, God is always right on time with just what He knows I need. You might not make the same decisions as I, given the same circumstances, but right now my circumstances are mine, not yours.  Please don't judge me. Or pity me.  Or for that matter, admire me.  Given a do-over I'd certainly make different choices, and I can tell you positively that the way things are is certainly not the way I intended for them to be.  It isn't easy, but it is what it is.

Thank you.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.