Dear LFTP: the assistant who wouldn't keep a secret
- My teaching assistant announced my pregnancy after I asked her not to — how do I deal with her?
A pregnant teacher writes that after confiding her pregnancy to her teaching assistant, the assistant immediately shouted the news to staff and hung a 'bun in the oven' banner over the classroom door. The hosts advise telling her straight that it was wrong and never trusting her with anything private again — joking the only use for her now is as a gossip distributor. The 'Secular' answer agrees: once two people know a secret it's no longer a secret; tell her only what you'd want on the PA system. A riff on the idiom 'cat out of the bag' follows.
More on Trust
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Dear LFTP: long friendship broken by a theft accusation
- Are we oversensitive to feel insulted and end a long friendship after a theft accusation without an apology?
A letter asks whether the writers are oversensitive: friends of many years apparently think they stole items from their house, say it is in the past and they have forgiven them, but offered no apology, and the writers can no longer be friends.
From No. 562 · Enter the McCormick II
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Dear LFTP: husband's ex-fiancee memories
- Am I overreacting to finding photos of my husband's elaborate proposal to his ex-fiancee?
Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter from an eight-months-pregnant wife who found old photos of her husband with his ex-fiancee, including an elaborate proposal like the one he never gave her, and asks if she is overreacting.
From No. 560 · Chill Out
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Ben's three questions: is he real, is he good, is he capricious?
- Is God even real?
- Is God good?
Ben frames three reasonable reactions to Old Testament violence: (1) maybe God isn't real; (2) maybe he isn't good; (3) maybe he's capricious.
From No. 540 · Justice is Mine