Dear John & Doves,
 
I don't think I ever told you the story that happened to me about 8 years ago when there was a man who wrote to the editor of a local newspaper who went around picking on everyone that wrote a letter to the editor against homosexuality.  He would attack people and tear their letters apart.  I was one of the people's letters who he attacked, and he attacked me personally by putting my name in his letter that was published.  I honestly don't know why the newspaper continued to post his letters to the editor because they even posted a letter from him in which he attacked the newspaper itself, and they printed it.  It even went so far as to this same man calling my house and politely asking me if this was the residence of Donna Danna, and after I had replied, "yes,"  he hung up on me.  I knew it must have been this same man because he then wrote a letter to the editor stating that I didn't reside in the town that the newspaper was based so he didn't know why they were publishing my letters. I wrote a reply letter back, but the newspaper refused to publish it because they didn't want to become involved in any type of lawsuit if this man could be considered harassing me.
 
So out of nowhere a unique idea came into my mind, and I wrote back a letter to the editor instead stating if  I really needed to be picked apart I would have chosen a vulture to do the job, or perhaps a cannibal, a piranha, or a Doberman pincher who all had years of experience in attacking people and tearing them apart.  I also said Mr. M's  attempts to cut me down to size with his cutting remarks in their newspaper had proved futile as here I was again as large as life with another letter to the editor. I also suggested that perhaps unkind letters to the editor should be delegated to the newspaper's mid-section which is the newspaper's real stomach of gobbled up or taken down opinions.  Of course, there was more to my letter than that, but the same day that my letter to editor appeared in the newspaper on the same page with my letter appeared a new column called Bird's Eye View with the picture of a vulture which really cracked me up with laughter when I saw it.  In part of the column, the vulture named Elizabeth Vulture discussed intelligent humans with big brains who didn't use them to paraphrase what the vulture said, and she said, "you know who I mean."  To make a long story short, from that day on Mr. M. no longer attacked and picked on others that wrote into the editor when they sent in letters against homosexuality.  I also never laughed so hard in my life when I saw that vulture because I pictured Elizabeth Vulture attacking Mr. M. with words, but she was doing it in a playful manner because she said in the newspaper column that she wasn't out to insult anyone.   I saw Mr. M. as the one with big brains that wasn't using them by attacking other people's letters and tearing them apart.
 
The point of my story is that when anyone criticizes or picks on someone else's letter on whatever subject it may be they need to do it in a loving, kind, and pleasant fashion.  I have had instances where people have e-mailed me privately attacking my post.  If the tone of the e-mail is unpleasant and unkind, I simply don't reply back.  Sometimes the best response is no response, and silence is golden.  If you can't respond back with a pleasant reply, then there is no point in reducing yourself down to the same level as the person who e-mailed you by sending them an unkind and unpleasant reply back. Proverbs 15: 1 says, "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." Proverbs 29:8b says, "...but wise men turn away wrath."
 
1 James 3:2 says, "For in many things we offend all.  If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."  1 James 3:5-8 says, "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."  The tongue can no man tame, but the Holy Spirit can certainly help to tame a believer's tongue, and what a person writes on paper, in a post, or in an e-mail  is the same as if they spoke the words out loud.
 
Laughter is also good medicine for the soul.  Proverbs 15:13 says, "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countance; but by sorrow of the heart is the spirit broken."  Proverbs 15:15 says, "All the days of the afflicted are evil; but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast." Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." So if anyone ever picks on you at 5doves or out in the world, just have a good laugh by thinking of my humorous true story about the vulture who has superior qualities for picking at you than anyone that ever picks on you, or maybe a wood pecker would fit the bill better.  He has a long bill that's good for pecking on posts and picking them apart.  The next time someone starts picking your post apart, think of a woodpecker with superior qualities that you would choose for pecking your posts apart rather than thinking of the person who is doing it.  If you can imagine your "would not" reply with unpleasantness as a "wood knot" that the wood pecker is having a hard time pecking away at, hopefully he'll give up and peck elsewhere.    Just don't let anyone get you down.  Think of it as a test that you pass with a pleasant response back to someone or a test you pass by not responding back with unpleasant and unkind words.
 
God bless,
Donna