More Expectations

I'm still thinking about expectations, and the saying, Expectations ruin relationships. This is a true statement when applied to selfish and ridiculous expectations, but it can't apply to all expectations, for it seems to me that a friendship without expectations is no friendship it all. 

Expectations in Friendship

If I can’t expect a smile;

Can’t expect a friendly chat;

Can’t drop in and stay a while,

Then what kind of friend is that?

If I dare not speak my mind;

Dare not open up my heart,

Then my friend, however kind,

Is but friend to me in part.

I expect to trust my friend,

And expect that trust returned.

Expectations cannot end,

Where true friendship has been learned.

When you give what you expect,

Sometimes more, but never less,

Then your friendship you protect

From the snare of selfishness.

If you don’t expect at all;

Only give and never take,

Your capacity is small

Deep and mutual friends to make.

Expectations are not wrong —

Only foolish ones resist;

Those that flow from love belong;
Friends without them don't exist.

Linked to WholeHeartedHome

Apple

This knit apple was an accident. I was making a red ball, but as I stuffed it, I saw an apple. To make it, follow the pattern for Brent's sphere. I made the larger size and used Red Heart Super Saver yarn with size 4 needles, but you can make any size. Mine is 3 1/2 inches in diameter and 4" tall.

Stuff with fiber fill, leaving space at the top. After you sew the top together, draw your yarn downward and sew a knot in the bottom of the apple. Then tie a knot in a long strand of brown yarn, run it through the bottom near your red knot, and up to the top indent in the apple. At the top, cast three stitches on to a double point needle. Make an I-cord to desired length. Bind off the three stitches and run your yarn into the apple.

Humanism and Christianity

   When I was a new Christian, saved perhaps for two years, I was taking an education class at my Lutheran college. On the first or second day of class the teacher told us that he was a Christian Humanist. He said that anyone who thought that that was a contradiction in terms should come to his office after class. I went. I don’t remember what he told me, but it sounded like mumbo-jumbo, and I quit the class and changed my course of study.

   Now about 30 years later I am revisiting the question. What is the difference between humanism and Christianity? Is it possible to embrace both?

   If you believe liberal theology and call yourself a Christian, I suppose you would say that it is very possible, since the modernist version of the gospel is essentially humanism with Christian terminology tacked on to it.

   But if you believe the Bible, and believe that man is a sinner in need of a savior, then, No. Humanism and Christianity are mutually contradicting. Humanism teaches that man is essentially good, in need of education and opportunity. The Bible teaches that man is essentially wicked, in desperate need of regeneration.

   Now, on a practical level the two systems may actually appear to give similar results. For example, consider working (as I do) with people with disabilities. Many of the people who qualify for services have severe adaptive disorders. In other words, they don’t know how to behave. A humanist is taught to look at these people and say, “They are as good as I am.” If he can make himself believe that, he is a good humanist who sees all men as equals. The Christian, on the other hand, is taught to look at these people and say, “I am as bad as they are.” This is a much easier task, for all of us know the sin that lies within. We know that if it were not for the grace of God and the wisdom to know how to check the lusts of the flesh, we could easily misbehave as much as anyone. We can probably also think of times when we actually have done so. Thus, a Bible-believing Christian actually has an easier time viewing all men as equals. He knows that by nature “they are all under sin.” Rom. 3:9.

   Though the Christian and the Humanist have essentially opposite views of man, they both come to the same conclusion: That all men are equal. The Humanist professes to believe they are equally good. The Christian knows that they are all equally bad.

   It is rather ironic that the philosophy propounded continually on television is that of humanism, and all the while, man is portrayed by the same medium in all of his vileness and wickedness. On the other hand, the religion that teaches that man is essentially evil produces fruit that cannot be denied: love, joy, peace, gentleness, and goodness. Things which many who believe in the goodness of man are not afraid to make a mockery of ~ and at the same time accuse Christians of hypocrisy!

Fancy Knit and Purl Patterns

Generally I prefer mindless knitting, but recently I have been experimenting with projects that require a little thinking.

Fancy Lozenge Pattern

This complicated knit and purl pattern isn't hard to knit as long as you know what row you are on and pay attention. Two other keys to help maintain sanity are:

1. Know which is the right side, and remember that you will always be working an odd row while on the right side. With other similar patterns, the right side may be on the even rows. Just remember which it is, and if you have trouble distinguishing, pin a large safety pin on the right side.

2. With this particular pattern, keep in mind that the your knits and purls will generally be offset by one. In other words, the two you knit on the last row, when they show up as purls on your next row, will not both be purled. Your pattern shifts with every row, so you know you are doing wrong if you are knitting the knits and purling the purls over any length of stitches.

Knit Plant Hanger

I bought a potted ivy at the thrift shop the other day, but I didn't have a plant hanger, so today I scoured the house for something to make one out of. How about using up some of the Red Heart Yarn I have been given? Red Heart isn't stretchy enough for my usual knitting, but it should be strong enough for a plant hanger. I looked online to find ideas for making a plant hanger out of yarn. The first thing I saw was instructions for knitting one. Why didn't I think of that??

I sort of followed a free pattern  I found on Ravelry, but as you will see if you click on the link, my finished product looks quite different. Here's what I did:

Suggestions for a smaller hanger in brackets.

MATERIALS:
1 skein Red Heart worsted weight yarn
   (or other strong yarn)
size 11 double point needles
size 15 circular needle

MAKE BASE:
Using size 11 double points, Cast on 6 stitches, dividing between three needles.
Increase Round: K1, YO around
Knit three rounds.
Increase Round: K1, YO around.
Knit four rounds.
Continue knitting an increase round then four rounds of straight knitting until there are 32 stitches on each needle. (96 stitches total). [For smaller size, knit only three rounds of straight knitting between increase rounds.Work until there are 16 stitches on each needle. On the next increase round, K2, YO around. (72 stitches.) Knit one row.]
Purl 1 row. (I'll skip this if I do it again.)

MAKE SIDES:
Switch to size 15 circular needle and alternate between the following two rounds:
1: YO, K2tog
2: K2tog, YO
Make sides approximately 5 inches, or whatever height you want. (It'll stretch.)

DIVIDE FOR I-CORDS:
**Switch to size 11 double points. Knit 32 [24] stitches. Leave remaining stitches on circular. Turn
Row 1: (P2tog) 2x, P to last 4 stitches (P2tog.) 2x. [Skip this row from small size.]
Row 2: (K2tog) 2x, K to last 4 stitches (K2tog.) 2x. [Skip this row from small size.]
Row 3: P2tog across. (12 stitches)
Row 4: P2tog, P4, Turn. Put remaining 6 stitches on holder, or leave on extra double point.
Row 5: K2tog. K3. Return the 4 stitches to the left needle.
Row 6: K2tog, K2. Return the 3 stitches to the left needle.
Continue making I-cord by knitting 3 stitches and returning them to the left needle. Repeat for 24". Cut yarn and pull through all stitches.
Attach yarn to 6 stitches on holder, starting on purl side.
Row 1: P4, P2 tog. Turn
Row 2: K2tog, K3 Return to left needle.
Row 3: K2tog, K2.
Now make I-cord as before.
Twist the two I-cords and tie them together at the top end.

Attach yarn to stitches on circular needle, and repeat from ** 2 more times.

Tie in loose ends. Tie the three twisted I-cords together in a large, tight knot. Cut the ends. If the hanger is too long, tie a second knot lower down.

After placing potted plant in the hanger, tighten up the bottom and tie a knot in the center, leaving a bulb of knitting.

I used this hanger on a pot with a 6 inch diameter at the base and approximately 9 inch width at the center. It will fit around a much larger one.

Expectations

Expectations ruin relationships 

 is a true saying. But it is also true that

Relationships build expectations.

   From people I don't know I expect very little, but as they prove their goodwill towards me and build a friendship, I begin to have certain expectations. If those expectations go unmet, the relationship dies. If they are met, the relationship grows, and I begin to have more and more expectations until a plateau is reached or perhaps a crisis intervenes that changes the dynamics of the friendship.

   Sometimes our expectations are built on unrealistic fantasies that no fellow human can meet. Such expectations ruin relationships. But unfulfilled expectations are not necessarily the result of expectations that are unreasonable. Often even very legitimate expectations go unmet due to the failure of those who have caused us, by one means or another, to expect better things from them.

   Concerning a close friend who began to take up more of his time than he desired to give, William Cowper wrote, "Customs very soon become laws. . . . Long usage had made that which at first was optional a point of good manners, . . . " He felt obliged to meet the expectations he had raised in his friend, and he did so (--- until he realized that she had fallen in love with him, which of course changed everything, and he cut off the relationship altogether.)

  When Daniel was in the habit of meeting God three times a day, we might suppose that God began to expect that meeting. If so, He was not disappointed, and Daniel continued to do as he had always done even in the threat of the lion's den.

   I have been thinking about these things for some time, but I have hesitated to write about them because I wanted to delineate the ramifications of it all. I wanted to explain what kind of expectations are proper and which ones are not. And I wanted to say when expectations ruin relationships and when a ruined relationship is the fault of the one who fails to meet expectations. But these things are deep and intricate, and I am able only to lay out the principle. There are two sides to every coin. To every thing there is a season. (Eccl. 3:1). A time to expect things and a time to give what is expected.  A time to  lower expectations and a time to expect great things.

~Somewhere in Utah~

~ and if you expect my pictures to have a direct connection with my subject,

you may want to lower your expectations. ~


WholeHearted-Home

Florence

Florence was born in 1930. She passed from death into life about 1946. She passed from life into eternity March 3, 2013.

There’s a twinkle in her eye

In her home above the sky.

She has shed her house of clay

And has thrown the clod away.

Though it bound and held her fast,

She is freed from it at last,

And the Florence we once knew

Is alive beyond the blue.

There’s a spring now in her step.

She has humor, life, and pep.

By the earth no more confined,

No confusion clouds her mind.

Nothing’s there to cramp her style

Or to check her charming smile.

She is Florence through and through,

But with vim and vigor new.

We can bear our present pain

For the joy of Poppy’s gain,

For the life she hid with Christ

Now is hers, and amply spiced.

Things she once by faith believed

She has now in fact received.

What a glorious gift of grace!—

She beholds the Savior’s face.