Winning Words 2/9/11
“For those whose closest thing to prayer is, OMG, we pray to the Lord.” (Unvirtuous Abbey) Is it just me? I seem to hear God mentioned a lot these days… and not in church. The name is so sacred to some of my friends that they spell it, G-d. How I got a Twitter account is a mystery, but it was there that I discovered U.V. One Twitter tweet suggests: For those who read Abbey, “Lord, have mercy.” ;-) Jack

FROM TS IN MICHIGAN: What a happy coincidence! FROM JACK: Some people call coincidences, miracles. I think that there's room for both.

FROM PRJS IN MICHIGAN: Perhaps some of the fault for that lies with the church....we are not dealing with the church at one of its greatest moments!!! FROM JACK: The history of the Church, in large part, is a reluctance to change or to adapt to "new" ways of doing things. Many people love to sing, "That old-time religion is good enough for me." I'm still trying to keep one foot in the past, with another foot in the future. It can be a stretch at times. "Lrd, hav mrcy!"

FROM MOLINER CF: Why does God get blamed for everything? We need to take responsibility for our own actions. FROM JACK: Blaming others for anything is a way of deflecting blame from ourselves.

FROM RS IN MICHIGAN: Amen! Jack, you start my days with such a big smile! This is so funny, yet not really funny at all is it? What have we (mankind) come to? I have a dear friend who is agnostic at best and often uses the Lord's name in vain. EVERYTIME she does I tell her that the Lord is on her mind whether she realizes it or not.Then I remind her that she offends me when she does it.She always apologizes and will go the rest of our visit without saying it ... til the next time we get together! FROM JACK: As in a game of cards, so it is in the game of life....You have to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.....When to speak up and when to hold your tongue. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of it with your friend. The Lord is on your mind, too!

FROM PL IN MICHIGAN: It's always fun to read your stuff, Jack! Maybe you have this attachment already. Don' show it to an English teacher..their heart isn't strong enough for it. I just researched "Unvirtuous Abbey" Thanks for teaching me something new. BTW, UV is forcing me to see much more than I want to see. Attachment: tmvocab-Texting Vocabulary.pdf(46KB) FROM JACK: GMTA

FROM LG IN MICHIGAN: Loved today's email! The Exec. Director at the agency in which I am doing my internship told me I should not say things like, "praise God" or "I pray that works out..." Rather I should say, "I hope that works out..." Or "thamk goodness..." So in this way I won't offend clients of other faiths or of no faith. She also (a couple weeks later) told me not to wear my cross necklace to work. Now this woman is holding a great deal of power over me in my situation... I asked her some questions about why the cross. Then I told her I would need time to think about that one... I prayed that God would be true to His promises that He would protect me, that He holds my plan, and that I would not be tempted w/o a way out. I had agreed to the changes in speech, even though I know she could not legally ask that of me (Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII). I told her I couldn't quit wearing my cross, but that I bought a longer chain so that it could be kept closer to my heart and less visible beneath my clothing. Yet this is a woman, to your point. In today's quote, who thinks nothing of yelling in frustration, "Jeeesus Christ!" Or "Ohhh Gaaawwwd!" Not my place to judge or impose on her, though... I simply pray silently each time it happens, "forgive her Father, for she knows not
what she does..." FROM JACK: Thanks for a MOST interesting response. Life does present us with challenges. We can deal with the black and white. It's the gray that often gives us trouble. When to agree to compromise is a ubiquitous question...at work...in marriages (relationships)...at church...in the mind. We can a connection with what the former senator, Everett Dirksen, said when questioned about changing his mind on a certain issue: "The only people who never change their mind are eith dead or in an insane asylum." It appears to me that you are neither dead, nor in an asylum.

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: lol. Did you know that all Tweets are kept by the Library of Congress for some reason? Read that recently and thought it was interesting. FROM JACK: Some say that God keeps a record of every word and every action that we speak and do. Do you think that he bothers to keep a record of tweets and responses to Winning Words?

FROM NIGHTENGALE/CONANT.COM: "Every thought, action, decision, or feeling creates an eddy in the
interlocking, interbalancing, ever-moving energy fields of life, leaving a permanent record for all of time. This realization can be intimidating when it first dawns on us, but it becomes a springboard for rapid evolution."
— Dr. David Hawkins: Physician, spiritual teacher, and lecturer

FROM JL IN MICHIGAN: I give up, Jack, what is "U.V."? FROM JACK: Go back to the quote and look at where it came from. OOPS. It should be U.A.

FROM BLAZING OAKS: That's a good one! When I was teaching, the students knew I did not allow the word God or Lord to be usedin a profane way, and they could turn that off and on at will...in the halls you often heard Oh God, or OMG, but they could "watch it" in my room, and if anyone slipped, it was the other students who reprimanded them! "Using God's name in vain is like a knife in Mrs. Os' heart...she a Christian!" :-) But I
wasn't a prude, and had a good sense of humor, which they loved. When I retired after 23 yrs. the plaque the choirs gave me had pictures of the various jazz choirs, and performing groups and musicals, and under my picture they had the caption, "I Can Do All Things, Through Christ, Who Strengthens ME!" I was surprised, as I don't remember ever quoting that to the kids!! But as I say, kids can be made aware of what they are saying, and can control it...I like U.A!! FROM JACK: Evidently your light wasn't hidden under a bushel. You taught more than music to your students.

FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Nice, thanks for the thoughts and the smile FROM JACK: If I knew how to use my Twitter account, I would tweet the response to you.

FROM SH IN ILLINOIS: I absolutely cannot stand it whenever anyone uses God's name in vain. If I know it's coming up in a song or rerun TV show, I'll turn it off. If I hear it in a new show, I try not to watch again. We teach in our church's Confirmation program that kids shouldn't say "Oh my G__" unless they're praying, and I correct them every time I hear it, whether they know me or not (or I ask them to get down on their knees and finish their prayer). The thing that gets me is when I hear a pastor using the phrase as the kids do. But, I correct him, too! If I heard a non-Christian say it, I think I'd really lose my temper. For me, it's about being respectful and reverent (or not, as the case may be). FROM JACK: When I was growing up, swearing did not seem as prevelent as it is now. Our Luther Leader (our pastor's wife) talked to us about sugar-coated swearing...Gee Whiz...Gosh...Heck...Gol Darn It...Shoot...Jeez...etc.

FROM JO IN MICHIGAN: Everyone calls on God when they're in trouble... FROM JACK: I don't know about "everyone," but I know that I do.

FROM AJ IN MICHIGAN: When I worked as a volunteer with my friend at the Our Lady of Refuge library, we daily heard little kids saying OMG. We finally decided to make them think about what they were saying. We said to the first child that sasid that that he had better be praying. He looked at us like we were nuts. We explained that we do not take God's name lightly, so if you want to speak to him that's great but do not swear in the library. You would be amazed how it worked. In about a week, the kids were telling each other to be praying. It seemed to work well. FROM JACK: There are various ways to teach lessons. During the time of slavery in the US, the slaves were denied education. A saying developed among the slaves..."Each one teach one." It became a cause for people to pass "education" on to someone else, who, in turn, would pass it on. You used the same technique in the library.