Dear Left Out,
Obviously your question was a little less of a "gripe" than what I first thought given your kind response to my answer. Perhaps I'm feeling a little defensive given the unusual amount of criticism we've received this week.
I would be grateful and honored if you would email me personally and let's talk over what you originally requested, and become friends.
I hope you'll take me up on that. brent@brentriggs.com
Blessings,
~ Brent
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13 comments:
Aw, what a nice thing to do, Brent. Admittedly, when I first read "Left Out"'s comment in the list of questions, I, too, thought it was a gripe. Unfortunately, I think that's one of the problems with email. Tone and "intention" are often REALLY hard to convey in the written word. I can't count how many times I've assumed someone was huffy based on the "feel" of an email or comment, only to find out later that what I thought they were saying wasn't actually what they were MEANING to say. ...It's really nice of you to be so attentive to your readers that you recognize when, perhaps, you've misjudged a situation, and seek to make ammends. Hopefully things will end well with Left Out and a new friendship will result from the interaction.
I don't want to 'stir the pot", but after reading "Left Out"'s question and then your answer, I think I have to say that I kinda agree with what that person had to say.
I know that you are a VERY busy man, father, and husband and that you don't have time to respond to every e-mail or comment that you get; but some of the wording that you use is sometimes invitational. Several times you have posted to let you know of a need that we, the readers have, and it almost sounds like you will get back/respond to that need.
I know as for myself, I have replied to you several times because of needs that I had or needed praying for, I have left you comments or messages on Facebook or Twitter and never gotten a response.
On the Leave a Comment section it says in bold letters to leave an e-mail address or contact info if we as readers are asking for a response from you. I have done that, but still haven't recieved any responses.
So, once in closing, I'm not wanting to be mean, just wanting you to know that there is more than one person who feels left out.
Emily... I've visited your link more than once and cannot find an email address for you. If you left your email address for me, I missed it. That doesn't mean I didn't read it, it means at the time I read it I was unable to respond. I've been to your profile at least three times that I recall looking for an email or a way to contact you.
Blessings, Brent
Brent, hang in there .... it's a rough crowd out there! But rest assured that I (and I'm sure I speak for many) am just happy to come to your blog and read it - and check on sweet Abby, of course. No demands or expectations, just the simple pleasure and privilege of being able to peek into the window of your life.
Ann
Brent, I read your bog because it blesses me. What you and Michelle write truly enriches my life.
I want you to know I have NO expectations upon you EXCEPT that you will continue to write your words of truth and spread the Gospel.
I don't feel left out, I feel very "let in" by your willingness to share your life with me
In His Grace, julie (Sacramento)
I do think people need to understand that when you have a child with cancer your life changes drastically.
I want to just say what a beautiful girl Abby is! And so brave! We too walk the leukemia journey. My daughter Bianca was two weeks away from turning four when she was diagnosed beginning June 2007. And despite the fact that Bianca was diagnosed as standard risk she spent around 113 days in hospital to date with infections (and thankfully now she is getting monthly IVIGs which made the world of difference).
You can see Bianca's video when we reached 1 year from diagnosis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NZ&hl=en-GB&v=jFKlYEy4WAY)
Does Abby participate in Beads of Courage? Bianca does and it is such a great initiative!!! To date Bianca has over 960 beads and every bead is for some kind of treatment or procedure or something that happened. Here Bianca is talking about her beads: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF2oNBRVWw4&feature=channel
Feel free to visit our blog and read all about Bianca and our adventures in New Zealand!
Lea White
http://whitesinnz.blogspot.com
As a person who has had a child in the hospital i want to say thank you for all you do. I do not think anyone can understand the amount of tme it takes to deal with a sick child and how tired you actually are physically and mentally and how hard it is to keep up when you are balancing a sick child and healthy child and keep a healthy child and still having the most important thing, time with God. Yet you even have time for your sunday mornings which have blessed my family. do what you can and know we all love you and appriciate what you do and in the end we are really praying for Abby
This is what I have to say...people have WAY too much time on their hands if all they can do is sit around, read your blog, and then complain and harass you. I am amazed that with what you are going through you even have time to answer SOME of the questions you get. You all are going through an emotionally draining, life or death situation...who do these people think they are? They obviously have never had that type of intense situation in their life are running from their own problems if all they have time to do is sit around and complain about you and your sweet family. I speak blessings and life and health to you. These comments anger me and I don't even know you. God Bless you!!!
I must also be one of those people whose intention was misunderstood. I replied to your response about the age children should be able to sit in church. My response was not posted or was deleted. My intention was not to be critical. I was just pointing out that each child is different. I was just concerned that some parent might be hard on themselves and feel like an inferior parent if their four year old is not able to sit still. One of my children was not able to fit that mold. I often felt inadequate as a parent, but in reality my son just matured at a later age. He is now a worship leader and can sit still most of the time! I also am surprised that you have so much time to respond to so many. Don't feel like you need to take on the world. I think we would all be content (or should be content) if you focused less on us and more on you and your family.
REMINDER: When you Post don't forget it says CLEARLY these ppl are BUSY (& tired) Human Beings... Please take it easy on them :)
Thank YOU so much!
Because of the VERY LARGE amounts of emails and comments we get, it is IMPOSSIBLE to respond to each of them. We do however, invest a lot of time to personally answer a great number of them as we feel led. How many and how often just depends on what life is throwing at us that day.
If you have a comment or request that you feel needs a personal response from us, please post that comment here, AND also email it directly to us so we have two chances to see it: brent@brentriggs.com
IF WE DO NOT RESPOND (WE REALLY DO OUR BEST), and you feel strongly that you need us to write back, feel free to email multiple times over a few days. We get a LOT of responses, and sometimes it takes a couple of tries to catch us at a good time.
I REALLY THINK this is Self-explanatory! :)
Brent,
Thank you so much for posting this and for looking at what I was saying. I truely am sorry for griping and making it seem like I was not appreciative for what you do because I love your blog, your magazine and the Hope you personally have given me. I will email you again and hope that we can talk. I think my request wasn't much...more just a friend that could give me a little Hope and I see that with you more then with most people.
I guess I just really want to say thank you for what you do, thank you for answering my question and for the difference you make in my life even if it is only ever able to be done from afar. I really do have a lot more understanding and I am glad I asked the question I did so that I could understand your intentions were good and that you really do wish you could talk to everyone that emails you.
Here's my concern-you and Michelle are loving, caring people, and you can tell you TRULY enjoy reaching out to others. It amazes me that through all of this, your love for Jesus, and love for your children shine through so brightly. Heck, your love for STRANGERS shines through, as evidenced by reaching out in this very post.
Although you are a HUGE inspiration to me, and to many, many others, I worry that you'll be spread too thin. Let us not forget that you are parents of children who need you more than the blog world needs you. You need each other more than the blog world needs you.
Quiet moments are rare in anyone's lives these days, let alone in a family going through cancer in addition to the trials of everyn day life. Please do not fill up those quiet moments with checking blogs, answering emails, responding to texts, etc. Because if YOU and Michelle are run down, what's left?
Once again, I appreciate the inspiring, thought-provoking, Jesus-shining work that you do in ALL of your work. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
About this comment:
"Anonymous said...
I must also be one of those people whose intention was misunderstood. "
We rarely delete a comment unless its overtly inflammatory or contains what we consider to be false teaching...
I don't remember seeing the comment in question, and certainly would not have deleted something like you are describing... sounds like maybe an error occurred...
Brent
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