Winning Words 1/25/12
“To think is easy; to act is difficult; to act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.” (Katie’s Fortune Cookie) Fortune cookies are fun. I like the saying that was in Katie’s cookie. Some believe that the cookies can tell the future. I read that you can even custom order fortune cookies for a Super Bowl Party, with one cookie as big as a football. You can open it before the game and know the winner. ;-) Jack

FROM LG IN MICHIGAN: Actually said by Johann von Goethe.////FROM JACK: I didn't know that they had fortune cookies in Johann's day. Thanks for the history lesson.////LG FOLLOW UP: Ah so, Jack, the Chinese have been making fortune cookies long before Johann was born! Have a happy day filled with good fortune!

FROM SHARIN' SHARON: So true. To be trustworthy and authentic and that others would know oneself as a person of those qualities but I suppose it's "to thine own self be true"--something like that. ////FROM JACK: An Indian was interpreting a billowing cloud of smoke to someone beside him. "Heap big smoke, but no fire." Many people have smokin' ideas, but the successful person is the one lights the fire.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: It wouldn't be as difficult to act as one thinks as it would be to act as one should. ////FROM JACK: Sometimes honest uncertainty holds us back. On the one hand, the best action can be inaction. But, on the other hand....

FROM MY FLORIST: There is an old prayer that goes something like that. I think it went "...give me the wisdom to understand the courage to that which is right ...". I know I'm missing part of it something about "knowing the difference between right and wrong, the wisdom to understand and the courage to do that which is right" maybe that's the line.////FROM JACK: Reinhold Niebuhr wrote it as part of a sermon in 1943. Alcoholics Anonymous has adopted it as part of their program.
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other."

FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS: Who’s Katie? I relative I don’t know yet?////FROM JACK: Katie is just one of the readers of Winning Words. She lives in Michigan, and we sometimes attend the same meetings. You can recognize her, because she usually has a laptop on her lap.

FROM JS IN MICHIGAN: To not act as one thinks has to be schizophrenic!////FROM JACK: ...or, "chicken."

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: Dad had custom fortune cookies made 4 a client as an advertising promotion when I was a kid. As I recall, they were huge. Really cool!////FROM JACK: Creative people usually can usually find a way to put their ideas into action. Your dad i good at that. One time I sent out a letter with an offering envelope and asked members to experiment by tithing for one week. Many of them responded, and the offering for the following Sunday was substantially higher.