This article feels a bit misleading, or perhaps written to purposefully incense readers without providing solid information. Not exactly what I expect out of Heritage Foundation.

For those of us who aren't dairy farmers, what, exactly, is 100 pounds of milk? How does that compare to the gallon or half gallon we buy every week at the grocery store? What is the current cost of 100 pounds of milk?

It seems that, as readers, we're expected to grab our torches and pitchforks and stage a coup over $39 milk, and not bother to ask the "silly" questions about, what exactly, does $39 milk mean?

Poorly done, Heritage Foundation. I expect more out of you.

Forgiveness is not accepting, excusing, or condoning the sinful behavior.

What about "I'm doing okay" - which I usually use when I either don't have time to get into how I'm really doing, or I simply don't trust the person asking.

We are in an extended moment of tears in our house. I believe I've shared this here before. Seven months ago our only child was born 4 months premature, and passed away a week later. It is a daily challenge to see how God can bring any joy out of the death of an infant, yet we believe that somehow He will.

We are also not the only ones mourning this. Today (October 15th) is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Statistically, 1 in 4 women will loose a child to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death. Please pray for the many women of your acquaintance who have lost children. Thank you.

My family has recently been through tremendous pain - the loss of our firstborn child after his premature birth. This path of grief and suffering has been surprising at every turn, and I think it is because we did not expect pain as a normal part of our existence. We also did not anticipate that the ways this pain would affect our daily lives. The greatest gift the last six months of my life has brought is a desire for heaven - a desire to dwell in the perfection of our Father's presence where pain will finally not exist.

And I have to add to Kandace's theory that there are only two sources of pain: pain caused by others and pain cause by our own choices. I can think of at least one additional source of pain: the fact that we live in a sinful, fallen world. The pain I experienced in the loss of my son was not caused by someone else, and it was not the result of any of my own actions. I think Job's sufferings are a great example of that. We must avoid the temptation of trying to blame all pain on a specific sin act.

Glad to hear you're not throwing policy out completely. Have you written anything about how to create policies that promote organizational health? (Not just what you don't like, but how to improve the policies we have?) It could be really valuable.

I work in an organization with a high degree of turn-over, and seasonal employees who come from a wide variety of backgrounds. When I started working here a number of years back, we literally had NO policies. Not a single one. This created financial instability and a whole collection of disgruntled, confused, over-worked, burnt-out employees. We've found that we need to have both one-on-one "solve the problem" discussions, and creation of policy to keep ourselves from solving the same problem over and over and over again. I strongly believe there is room for both.

Having a policy doesn't mean you don't address issues with people personally - it means giving you a framework in which to discuss those issues. It lays out that "higher standard" you want people to adhere to.

I completely agree that you cannot simply "fix" a problem by putting in a policy. This doesn't, however, mean there isn't room for policy at all.

I think your thoughts on why you hate policies were good - but I still don't think its a reason to ditch them completely. For example, my office has a policy that any expenditures over a certain dollar amount must be run by the COO & CEO. It gives us a way to controlling our spending, and helps our employees reason through why they need something they'd like to spend the funds on. Does it take away the freedom to purchase whatever we think we need - sure does. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, and I don't think our financial supporters think so either.

We've put in policies that keep one employee from abusing another - like what time you can register for check in at events. Before this policy, we had employees sleeping on the floor of the office until 1 am, waiting for someone to register. Now, a late registration simply needs to make arrangements to check in late, or to find lodging until the office opens. Simply having a conversation with this type of person didn't seem to fix the problem of not respecting another employee.

I don't think all policies should be discounted. I think that with the right attitude behind them - like protecting financial integrity or being good stewards of our human resources - there is a place for them.

Many blessings on you! My favorite part of Psalm 107 - the first verse - "Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those whom He has redeemed from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west."

Brittany - I felt like I could have written your first note (except we're expecting #1). I was raised with the concept that while staying at home is ideal, it just isn't practical. I was encouraged to pursue a career, and I've spent most of my adult life doing so. Since our dating days, my husband has been set on encouraging me in whatever I wanted to do. Recently we've been sitting under Biblical teaching that has really shifted our views, but we're stuck in a financial situation that will not let me out of work. My husband was unemployed for a while, and although is working now, I still make almost twice what he does (not saying much as I work with a nonprofit). Both of us carry college debt, and I carry heavy graduate school debt, too. We live very frugally, but if I were to quit my job and stay home we would loose our house and default on most of our loans.

My husband said something very freeing to me the other day, when we were talking about it and I was in tears. I was wondering the same as you - am I living outside of God's will? I felt so strongly called into my career, including grad school and current position - I couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. He looked at me and said "I believe that your job is God's provision for us at this time in our lives. God has chosen to provide for us in this way, and when He chooses to provide for us in a different way, you'll be able to stay home."

It doesn't mean I enjoy dragging to work every morning, and dragging home to stare at the ever growing pile of dirty dishes (that I'm not washing because 1st trimester yuckies keep me out of the kitchen) or dirty laundry. But I'm learning two things:

1 - I may never have come to value the importance of staying at home if I hadn't walked through a period where I couldn't be there.
2 - I've learned to be grateful for however God provides, and I've once again learned I cannot dictate to God what my life should look like.

I hope that you're encouraged that God is not limited in how he can work, and that He comes to rescue us in His good timing. I rely on Psalm 107 often - it tells stories of how God rescues his people from what they believe they cannot survive, when they call out to Him. May you be blessed today!
~Amanda

Oh yes. With bad vision casters every other week it some new thing and a huge headache and scramble trying to make that new thing happen - because it always has to happen "yesterday." Finances turn into a disaster because the vision is so great, it "doesn't matter" if you have the resources in hand. Staff are left to simply figure it out and get it done ASAP - they get disgruntled and eventually burned out trying to add accomplishing the new vision to their already full task lists; occasionally they even leave with a bad taste in their mouths.

Its not a pretty thing - and I appreciate your wisdom to leaders to avoid this kind of behavior.