Jack’s Winning Words 9/19/07
“Is it the absence of bad behavior that makes someone good, or is it the presence of good behavior?” (Nate Creekmore) Yesterday I saw this in the comic strip, Maintaining. Did you see it, too? Personally, I think that goodness depends on both. Like the old Johnny Mercer song goes: You got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. ;-) Jack

FROM J.L. IN MICHIGAN: Wow, I really have to think about this one! I think it the presence of good behavior. But then again, I think it's the presence of good behavior INSIDE of the person. I remember helping out at the kid's preschool. Everyone would be working and playing together, except one little one....it never mattered what class or what was happening at the time. I could never quite figure that one out. And, I guess it applies to all ages. There seems to be always one. Humm, I'll have to think on that some more.
MORE FROM J.L.:I have been pondering that one and one my friend asked me. Their sermon, from a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor last week was....."Does prayer change God's mind?" The pastor said absolutely not as did my friend. And I say, "Who are we to say what God can or can't do?" So now I have two things to ponder!
JACK RESPONDS: From last week's first lesson (Exodus 32:14): "And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he had planned to bring on his people." If I were still preaching, I'd like to deliver a sermon on that text. Ask your friend about the text...and have her ask the Missouri Synod pastor.
I have a hard time using a word like, absolutely.

FROM REV. J.S. IN MICHIGAN: The Priest and the Levite had the absence of bad behvior and were not praised as "good".....the Samaritan alone was so praised....for the presence of good behavior....

FROM S.H. IN MICHIGAN: Recently I acquired a book for women "Woman to Woman: Practical Advice and Classic Stories on Life's Goals and Aspirations". There is a lot of interesting stuff in this book but one paragraph struck me "Once you decide that you're going to accept the other person--with his faults--you're going to have marital harmony always. It's when we're trying to change the other person into what we want him to be that we lose." The advice goes on later that things work out better in a marriage when you accentuate the positive and pay attention in a good way to the negative. Try to be the right person for the guy, criticize in a beneficial manner, trust in Hashem, etc., etc., etc. Life is growth all the way around etc.