Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I got this ready almost 2 months ago, and didn't print it.  I'm doing that today! When I Thought the Church Had Failed Me By  Kim White  · August 25, 2022 The first time The Church let me down, I was just a youth. I had a longstanding difficult relationship that had advanced from “difficult” to abusive. It was severely damaging my happiness and self-esteem; I had recurrent nightmares and fantasies of self-harm, but I was too young to know what to do. So, at different times I tried to explain my situation to my bishop and youth leaders. Each time, I was dismissed or put off with platitudes and reassurances like “Sometimes people don’t get along when they’re young, but when you get older, I bet it will change.” To be fair to those leaders, in retrospect I can see that I didn’t know how to articulate the reality of my situation, and I’m not sure I gave them what they needed to know to help me. But the point is, I went to leaders in the Church for help and I didn’t get it. In fact,

 This article has special meaning to me!  One of the "lost sheep" of my children, and his wife, called me just 2 days ago, and we talked for 1 hour and 27 minutes!  He was searching for the group, and wanted to feel found, I feel!  It truly warmed my heart! Are you giving your black sheep a baaad rap? By  Daryl Gibson  · October 23, 2022 To read more from Daryl, visit  Parenting in the Borderlands . Sheep get no respect. Nobody wants a child to turn out to be the “lost sheep” or the “black sheep.” It’s time to take a broader look at these misunderstood mammals, and at your adult children who fit the description. You may have been wrong about both. Jesus’s Parable of the Lost Sheep is one of the shorter of his stories. The gist of it is:  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?  (From Luke 15) I’ve always interpreted it to be a story about rescuing