Tales from Ted

Resolutions! Most make them on New Years Eve. Some deep thinkers write them down as they discover the need for resolutions in the year while the old year is still in play. Others decide why make resolutions...I'm just gonna break them. Then the worst of the resolution makers actually enjoy breaking them. I remember an old friend who used smoke like a factory chimney. He wreaked of smoke, his breath, his body odor, his clothing...and to be honest, it was over-powering. I was his roomie for a while after a rough divorce. I tried to get him to quit, and he would resolve each year at Christmas that change was going to occur. Nope, didn't happen. The first time he smelled someone smoking he always had a reserve pack under his car seat in case he just couldn't take any more. I used to tell him how self-defeating it was to have a reserve pack. He would smile.

Alcoholics, gamblers, sex addicts, etc., etc., do the same thing. They swear to themselves and everybody still left to list…

I remember some saying that "if Obama were to be elected President of the United States the world could be at peace. Men of all races and color would join hand in hand toward a more noble future." Just to prove the point that this man of letters could bring peace, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize based not on what he actually accomplished but what the world expected him to accomplish-HE DIDN'T! But this is not a blog to slam the many failures of our current President. He has done so many things wrong that even the so-called LEFT can scarcely defend him. Remember though, that he is a man, only a man with limited ability to change the world around us. Men with a skewed vision can shape some of the nation's circumstances but everything is really in flux anyway. According to the List Of Ongoing Conflicts, 66 countries are presently at war and a 669 factions are warring with each other ( http://www.warsintheworld.com/?page=static1258254223 )!!! The world scans the polit…

I make no apologies for addressing this blog mainly to Christians but there are many truths in here that apply to persons of other faiths or no particular faith. Domestic Abuse is more prevalent now than at any other time. Even though there is education for abused women, many refuse to believe they are in abusive relationships or if they do believe it their fear of dealing with it is greater than their understanding of the seriousness of it. There are many forms of abuse and they are listed here: Rachel Miller is not just someone who writes about it but has experienced domestic abuse. There are MONSTERS in your congregations who prey on their wives and children. They are not always the gruff and obvious. Many are professionals. They hide their true personalities until they get within the confines of their domain. How does one recognize them? How do they perform their abuse? How do you define abuse and abusers?

Abuse then, is a mentality of entitlement and superiority in which an abuser…

It's almost Christmas! Good cheer and love for mankind is at hand...but not in every home! According to one agency, Domestic Abuse Program there were 17,667 calls of domestic abuse. That is only one fifth of the abuses that occur. In fact, 4000 women in the U.S. die each year from domestic abuse. Here is a reminder of what domestic abuse is and the stats: Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks, as well as economic coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partner.  DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS:  A pattern of behaviors including a variety of tactics - some physically injurious and some not, some criminal and some not - carried out in multiple, sometimes daily episodes.  A pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks, as well as economic coercion. (NOTE) Yes, there is such a thing as marital rape. It is forced or demand sex when there…