{"id":5400,"date":"2020-05-24T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5400"},"modified":"2020-04-19T15:42:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T20:42:18","slug":"apples-of-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5400","title":{"rendered":"Apples of Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026<\/em>..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three lady friends and I were out for a night on the town. We\nwere going to dinner and then the symphony. What fun! After dinner we shared an\nelevator with a middle-aged man. We chatted with him and found out he was\nheaded for the symphony, too. Since we were within walking distance but not\nsure which way to go we said, \u201cGreat! We\u2019ll follow you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He good naturedly replied, \u201cThat would be like the blind\nleading the blind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was dead silence, the kind that only lasts a second\nbut seems like a lifetime. You see, my friend Rose is blind. It was apparent by\nthe man\u2019s expression that he wanted the earth to open and swallow him up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew the feeling well because I\u2019ve had my share of verbal\nfaux pas. I long to be the one speaking \u201capples of gold in a setting of silver\u201d\n(Proverbs 25:11), but that precious word so fitly spoken seems to elude me. I\nhave blooper-itis. \u201cKids say the darndest things\u201d but we adults can give them a\nrun for their money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m reminded of a story I heard about a woman who went to\nthe produce section of a grocery store and asked to buy half a head of lettuce.\nThe produce guy seemed perplexed but said he would check with the manager. He\nwent to the back of the store, found the manager, and said, \u201cSome idiot wants\nto buy a half a head of lettuce.\u201d He turned slowly to find the woman had\nfollowed him. He then added, \u201cAnd this lovely lady here would like to buy the\nother half. Would that be okay?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m afraid I don\u2019t think that quickly. I consider myself a\nreasonably intelligent person, but I tend to have these brain-freeze moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, a neighboring church choir came to sing for our\ncongregation. I thanked a man for coming. He looked at me blankly and said,\n\u201cBut I attend church here with you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a family conference, the speaker encouraged us to meet\nsomeone new from each age group every day: a pre-teen, a teen, an adult, and a\nsenior citizen. I went up to the first woman I saw and said, \u201cPerhaps I could\nmeet you and you\u2019d be my senior citizen for today.\u201d She looked offended and\nreplied, \u201cPerhaps you could, but I\u2019m NOT a senior citizen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One time I even forgot the name of my best friend when I was\nintroducing her to someone. The list could go on and on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these bloopers bring a smile to my face, I still wish\nI could be more like my friend Rose. She had a certain graciousness that set\nthe other person at ease in an awkward situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the man good naturedly replied, \u201cThat would be like the\nblind leading the blind\u201d and dead silence occurred, Rose didn\u2019t skip a beat.\nShe laughed and graciously said, \u201cOh, you want me to lead then, huh?\u201d The man\nsighed and we all laughed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\u2019s what I call true apples of gold! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*****<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father, how I long to\nspeak apples of gold in settings of silver, but it doesn\u2019t seem to happen very\noften. Forgive me when I don\u2019t think before I speak and perhaps say a hurtful\nthing to someone thinking it\u2019s all in fun. Give me the ability to make others\nfeel comfortable in an awkward situation and fill my mouth with Your words of\nedification. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Journal of Joy: Things that make my heart smile\u2026.. Three lady friends and I were out for a night on the town. We were going to dinner and then the symphony. What fun! After dinner we shared an elevator … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}