Mammamel
11-16-2008, 08:16 AM
I talked with several different ladies this week. Each sees something different when she looks at PH. One sees the site that led her to the Lord. One saw a site of unforgiving people because we asked questions about her intentions before allowing her back. (Instead of just blindly allowing a person who cased us harm to come home and have a chance to do it all over again) One saw a special place where women are protected and encouraged. The last saw a place where she felt she needed to be “out there” and since she is at this time under great stress and can not be “out there” she is “protecting” us and not visiting.
So what is the point? Why is PH here really? Is it a religious site? Is it a frugality site? If everyone is welcome why are some people “forced” out and not allowed back?
I will with this post try to answer these questions.
What is the point?
I have been online and a part of online communities for over 10 years. In that time I never found one that met my specific needs. I wanted to learn about frugality, with a look towards what God says about it. Frugality sites though do not encourage talk of God. One allowed quotes from wiccan and buddhist texts but not Bible quotes. Others did not discourage it, even had prayer rooms, but they did not go out of their way to promote or use them. I felt like a kid in a hallway yelling echoooo just to hear something, anything.
Most religious sites were just that. Unaccepting of anything outside their preferred religion, even where there was no Bible mandate for what they claimed or demanded. Some even go so far as to declare that if you do not worship under their specific guidelines and steeple, you are doomed to hellfire.
Then I met Miss Maggie. She had a board that she strove to keep centered. She had issues with it though. Groups were fighting with each other. It was off track with her beliefs. She asked me, well told me, that if I did not take it over she would tear it down. I knew a valuable resource would be lost if that happened and so, I asked my husband to let me have it. He realized how important it was to me, and said yes. Now he uses a lot of his free time helping me with my hobby!
PH grew and changed once I took over. The focus shifted from mostly frugality to a good (I think) balance of Faith and frugality. Its focus is to teach women how to serve God and their families in all areas, not just frugality. Soon however this created strife for some who were not willing to accept Bible ideas on “their” frugality site. We went from one war to another. People demanded we get rid of the Bible rooms or at least cut them back. Then began debates in all the rooms. We had a room back then called off grid. While it was intended to be like the one we have today, it instead became a place to focus on conspiracy theories, the gov. is out to get you and so on. It got so bad I took it down completely.
There were times I almost began to buy into the idea that a forum where all religions were welcome would not work. Here we are 6 years, yes 6 years later and we have an occasional dust up, some one will dramatically crash and burn, but we are still here and stronger than ever. This month we celebrate our 6th anniversary.
Is it a religious site?
NO! I can not emphasize this often or strongly enough. PH can not be a religious site because I am not religious. I believe religion to be a man made device because man can not leave well enough alone. The Bible is our sole authority. In it God says He created one Faith. That is why I say women of all Bible based religions can be saved, as long as they have that thread of Faith. As long as they trust that Christ died for them, to save them from sin, as long as they live to honor THAT, it doesn’t matter what religion they worship in.
Is it a frugality site?
In part. PH is focused on helping women meet their family’s needs. Frugality to me is more than gardens and stockpiles. Frugality to me is using our abilities, studying what God says and shows us in HIS word, then applying it in practical ways to our lives. It is teaching women to find their homemaking talents, we all have at least one and some are blessed with amazing gifts in all areas. (For the record, I am not one of them!) Some may need to buy clothes but can stretch a bean, a pea and chicken stock into a feast fit for kings. Other may sew amazingly gorgeous things for their family’s use, but need to depend more on frozen items to make a meal. PH is a place for both to learn and share what God has blessed them with.
If all are welcome why are some “forced” out and not allowed back?
PH is a unique blend of ladies. We have all ages, even having a section for the tween/teen daughters of our members. Because of our heavy Bible focus, and the Bible addresses EVERYTHING we will ever face in this life, we are targets for other sites. Sometimes, people will come here not to learn but to disrupt and harm others. While some of us can ignore these people and get on with our lives, PH has other members who take things very much to heart. These ladies get hurt, and PH has a staff who work to protect them.
Some people will lose their focus on God, and decide that those of us focusing on HIM are not addressing areas that they feel need it. So they will create chaos and dysfunction. We have seen PH attacked over and over again on blogs and other message boards. If the folks who are worrying about us would spend that time studying God’s word, they may be able to join us once again.
Others, how ever well meaning will take PH to places it ought not to go. That harms not only people’s views of PH, but their view of our stand for God. Sometimes it will even harm their view of God or Christ. While PH is almost solidly a Christian site, most web sites, even those claiming to be Christian, are not. You can tell by what they deem ok, the fruits of the spirit are missing, out right denial that scripture declares certain activities wrong and so forth. A true Christian can not claim as right something God flat out says is wrong. Only some one who is a Christian in name only can do that. We called them pew warmers when I was a kid. So once a person is discovered doing this, they are removed from the site. Can they come back? Yes, once they admit that they did wrong and show repentance. Some think as Christians we are to just forgive, whether the person repents or not, and we do. However that does not mean there are no consequences for the actions they took. God forgives us and removes our sin. He does not give us a free pass to forgo the discipline and He does not give Christians an example of so doing. This means that when one drags PH through the mud, slandering and cursing and denying their victory status, we will not just let them come back. We will need to see evidence that a change of heart has taken place.
Some say this means we are unforgiving. No, we have forgiven however there are consequences to be had, one of which is, you can not come here with no evidence of a changed nature just because you ask to.
The point of PH is this, to help women learn God’s ways for them to manage their homes. To learn gifts and talents they can use to help their families through the hard times, and to learn to enjoy them in the easy times. To learn that when we focus on God, we need not know fear, He is the great protector and He will keep us safe. He will help us learn what we need to know to guide our families and to raise our children to glory in HIM. That ladies is the point. To worship our Lord daily with our Faith, our family and our frugality. The neat thing is, when we get it close to right? Others see it and they want in too! There are several ladies on PH who found life because we came close. Please note, we being human will never ever always get it right, we will fail, sometimes gloriously in Technicolor, but we get up and begin again.
Have a joyous day in the Lord, and thank Him for letting us be together for 6 years!
So what is the point? Why is PH here really? Is it a religious site? Is it a frugality site? If everyone is welcome why are some people “forced” out and not allowed back?
I will with this post try to answer these questions.
What is the point?
I have been online and a part of online communities for over 10 years. In that time I never found one that met my specific needs. I wanted to learn about frugality, with a look towards what God says about it. Frugality sites though do not encourage talk of God. One allowed quotes from wiccan and buddhist texts but not Bible quotes. Others did not discourage it, even had prayer rooms, but they did not go out of their way to promote or use them. I felt like a kid in a hallway yelling echoooo just to hear something, anything.
Most religious sites were just that. Unaccepting of anything outside their preferred religion, even where there was no Bible mandate for what they claimed or demanded. Some even go so far as to declare that if you do not worship under their specific guidelines and steeple, you are doomed to hellfire.
Then I met Miss Maggie. She had a board that she strove to keep centered. She had issues with it though. Groups were fighting with each other. It was off track with her beliefs. She asked me, well told me, that if I did not take it over she would tear it down. I knew a valuable resource would be lost if that happened and so, I asked my husband to let me have it. He realized how important it was to me, and said yes. Now he uses a lot of his free time helping me with my hobby!
PH grew and changed once I took over. The focus shifted from mostly frugality to a good (I think) balance of Faith and frugality. Its focus is to teach women how to serve God and their families in all areas, not just frugality. Soon however this created strife for some who were not willing to accept Bible ideas on “their” frugality site. We went from one war to another. People demanded we get rid of the Bible rooms or at least cut them back. Then began debates in all the rooms. We had a room back then called off grid. While it was intended to be like the one we have today, it instead became a place to focus on conspiracy theories, the gov. is out to get you and so on. It got so bad I took it down completely.
There were times I almost began to buy into the idea that a forum where all religions were welcome would not work. Here we are 6 years, yes 6 years later and we have an occasional dust up, some one will dramatically crash and burn, but we are still here and stronger than ever. This month we celebrate our 6th anniversary.
Is it a religious site?
NO! I can not emphasize this often or strongly enough. PH can not be a religious site because I am not religious. I believe religion to be a man made device because man can not leave well enough alone. The Bible is our sole authority. In it God says He created one Faith. That is why I say women of all Bible based religions can be saved, as long as they have that thread of Faith. As long as they trust that Christ died for them, to save them from sin, as long as they live to honor THAT, it doesn’t matter what religion they worship in.
Is it a frugality site?
In part. PH is focused on helping women meet their family’s needs. Frugality to me is more than gardens and stockpiles. Frugality to me is using our abilities, studying what God says and shows us in HIS word, then applying it in practical ways to our lives. It is teaching women to find their homemaking talents, we all have at least one and some are blessed with amazing gifts in all areas. (For the record, I am not one of them!) Some may need to buy clothes but can stretch a bean, a pea and chicken stock into a feast fit for kings. Other may sew amazingly gorgeous things for their family’s use, but need to depend more on frozen items to make a meal. PH is a place for both to learn and share what God has blessed them with.
If all are welcome why are some “forced” out and not allowed back?
PH is a unique blend of ladies. We have all ages, even having a section for the tween/teen daughters of our members. Because of our heavy Bible focus, and the Bible addresses EVERYTHING we will ever face in this life, we are targets for other sites. Sometimes, people will come here not to learn but to disrupt and harm others. While some of us can ignore these people and get on with our lives, PH has other members who take things very much to heart. These ladies get hurt, and PH has a staff who work to protect them.
Some people will lose their focus on God, and decide that those of us focusing on HIM are not addressing areas that they feel need it. So they will create chaos and dysfunction. We have seen PH attacked over and over again on blogs and other message boards. If the folks who are worrying about us would spend that time studying God’s word, they may be able to join us once again.
Others, how ever well meaning will take PH to places it ought not to go. That harms not only people’s views of PH, but their view of our stand for God. Sometimes it will even harm their view of God or Christ. While PH is almost solidly a Christian site, most web sites, even those claiming to be Christian, are not. You can tell by what they deem ok, the fruits of the spirit are missing, out right denial that scripture declares certain activities wrong and so forth. A true Christian can not claim as right something God flat out says is wrong. Only some one who is a Christian in name only can do that. We called them pew warmers when I was a kid. So once a person is discovered doing this, they are removed from the site. Can they come back? Yes, once they admit that they did wrong and show repentance. Some think as Christians we are to just forgive, whether the person repents or not, and we do. However that does not mean there are no consequences for the actions they took. God forgives us and removes our sin. He does not give us a free pass to forgo the discipline and He does not give Christians an example of so doing. This means that when one drags PH through the mud, slandering and cursing and denying their victory status, we will not just let them come back. We will need to see evidence that a change of heart has taken place.
Some say this means we are unforgiving. No, we have forgiven however there are consequences to be had, one of which is, you can not come here with no evidence of a changed nature just because you ask to.
The point of PH is this, to help women learn God’s ways for them to manage their homes. To learn gifts and talents they can use to help their families through the hard times, and to learn to enjoy them in the easy times. To learn that when we focus on God, we need not know fear, He is the great protector and He will keep us safe. He will help us learn what we need to know to guide our families and to raise our children to glory in HIM. That ladies is the point. To worship our Lord daily with our Faith, our family and our frugality. The neat thing is, when we get it close to right? Others see it and they want in too! There are several ladies on PH who found life because we came close. Please note, we being human will never ever always get it right, we will fail, sometimes gloriously in Technicolor, but we get up and begin again.
Have a joyous day in the Lord, and thank Him for letting us be together for 6 years!