I'm Doing Alright

Hey Folks,

First of all, I apologize for not staying in better contact. I just don't do much on my computer anymore, and to be honest I've never been impressed with how the phone app for this forum works. Besides, I am horrible with my phone's "keyboard;" I spend more times correcting mistypes and bad autotypes than actually tapping out a message!

So my wife has been gone for 10 weeks now, and in many ways it has been very long 10 weeks. But God has been good to me, and I am truly at peace with everything. Well, usually. I will admit I still have melancholy periods, but as Paul says in Philippians 4:11, "I [am learning] to be content whatever the circumstances." (He said "have learned;" I'm still learning. )  Her lease ends in 16 weeks, at which time she'll either come home or she won't. It's as simple as that. I see her around town sometimes (living in a small town can suck at times!), and she looks happy, which to be honest makes me happy. While it would be easy ... and for a while was easy ... to be bitter and resentful, I really am more concerned about her well being -- her happiness, her walk with Christ, her health -- than anything else.

Mindy did come to the house briefly a few days before Christmas with our daughter, who was in town visiting, and I took the opportunity to give her a jump drive with information I had been gathering on "Hope Restored," Focus on the Family's marriage "intensive" (You can check it out here). I asked her to look at it and pray about it, though I didn't tell her what it was. Then last Friday I sent her an email asking if she had looked at the jump drive, and in the email I indicated what it was without going into any further detail. So far I haven't gotten an answer; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. :/  Anyhow, I guess you could consider that a specific prayer request, that her heart would be softened and open to the attending something like that. 

Meanwhile, as I said, I'm doing okay. I am learning to be content with just having God and my cat as my companions. He can be a real pain in the rear end when He doesn't seem to be paying attention to me, and the cat can be annoying to.  I don't like being alone ... hate it actually. But it's where God has me at this stage in my life, and He has me here for a reason, so here is where I am. I have been using this time to improve my relationship with Him, which no doubt accounts for my sense of peace, and I know that things will be better someday. That doesn't mean they won't get worse first, but I believe God is preparing me for whatever may come. I have complete faith and trust in Him; for "the LORD is good, a strong tower when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust Him." (Nahum 1:7)

Another plus: little by little my interest in hard Christian music is returning.   For the last 9 months I have been listening primarily to praise and worship (Glenn Kaiser's "All My Days" has become one of my ultimate favorites), but I've also enjoyed Stryper's "Even the Devil Believes" (IMO "Fallen" and "God Dam Evil" were better, but ETDB is still good) and Signum Regis' new EP "Flag of Hope." 

I'll try to keep better tabs on what's going on here, drop in a little more often. No promises though; I rarely spend as much time sitting at my computer as it has taken to write this post. Look me up on Facebook if you use it; I don't post there much, but I'm there. I checked out MeWe, but paying $5/mo to connect with people online? Sorry, no. 

Thanks for your prayers! I love you guys, and I gotta admit it's great to pop in and see that most everyone is still here. I never really meant to leave, it just sort of happened.

Barrie (BearDad)

Hey BearDad!  Great to see you.  Sorry to hear about the path you're on but glad that you're keeping your eyes on Jesus.

MeWe is free.  They do have services that you can pay for, but I not paying anything for it.

Thanks for the update. Glad to see you're doing as well as can be expected. I pray you two can work things out in God's time.

Praying for you here, too.  Also, as Xid said MeWe is free.  I'm on it (although only check it about once a week at the moment).  If it cost anything I wouldn't be on it.

I think I'll rejoin MeWe.

Hey Bear, sounds like we're walking a similar path right now. Praying for you!

Xid wrote:

Hey BearDad!  Great to see you.  Sorry to hear about the path you're on but glad that you're keeping your eyes on Jesus.

MeWe is free.  They do have services that you can pay for, but I not paying anything for it.

As soon as I installed the app it asked for money, and I could not see any way out of the screen without killing the entire app. Maybe I’ll try again.

ChristTrekker wrote:

Hey Bear, sounds like we're walking a similar path right now. Praying for you!

And I’ll pray for you as well.

Hey, if you want more praise & worship stuff, I can make you a care package and send you what I have.  I don't use it anymore.  There is some Paul Baloche, some Hillsongs stuff, etc.

I don't like the phone app version for the board.  I actually made a bookmark and come here via my phone's browser.  While the app version should work better on the phone, it seems the web version works better for me.  I also don't like the drab colors of the app version.  So, I  use the web version on my phone.

I do a lot of speech to text typing when I use my phone for internet usage.  I misspell all the time due to large fingers and small keyboards.  Auto correct is a good tool, but it creates as many problems as it solves, too.  But, you might want to try using the speech-to-text feature if your phone has that.

Oh wow Barrie it is so great to hear from you.  We have missed you (at least I know I have).
I'm really glad you reached out out to us again.  It's like seeing an old family member again.  It is good to hear your relationship with the Lord has gotten better, even given the terrible circumstances that lead to it.
Still praying for you and your wife, and that you don't get to frustrated with the cat.  

How good to see that BearDad is back on CHM.

It's so good to read that your interest in Christian music is back.
Hope you'll find great music to lift you up.

I never use my phone to joun CHM, I'm old fashioned and us my pc.