“Unfortunately sometimes one can’t do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.” (W.Somerset Maugham) – from the Jack’s Winning Words blog.
Maugham might have gone on to say that not doing what you know is right may end up making everyone unhappy. Have you ever known someone who tried to make everyone happy all the time and ended up just making everyone unhappy? Those are people who straddle the fence and refuse to take a side or make a decision for fear of making someone unhappy.
What this type of person doesn’t realize most of the time 
is that their waffling actually satisfies no one and can make things worse. They have a tendency to say to both sides in any disagreement whatever it is that they think they want to hear. Both sides temporarily think they have the support of that person for their point of view, until there is a showdown and they realize that the waffler doesn’t really support either side. Then everyone is unhappy.
People who waffle all of the time can seldom make firm decisions on just about anything. 
They always have doubts and are torn by FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt. Their real problem for most of these people is a lack of self-confidence. Since they don’t feel good about themselves, they can’t get comfortable with any of the decisions that they have to make. It is just easier for them to go along with whatever way the wind in blowing at the time and to agree with the position of whomever is standing in front of them.
Many of these people seem to be analytical types – people who tell themselves that they 
are looking at both sides of the argument and analyzing the arguments before making a decision. The problem is that they never get to the decision point. They spend all of their time analyzing and looking at both sides. There is certainly nothing wrong with being open minded enough to see both sides of an issue. After all the opposite is to become bull-headed and
rigidly set in your beliefs, no matter how wrong they have proven to be.
The key for an analytical person is to set a deadline for them self to bring closure to the analysis and make a decision based upon the facts that they have in hand at the time. That’s hard for an analytical person, but necessary to avoid ticking off everyone. Being an analytical person myself, I find that stopping to make a little Franklin chart of the “facts” at hand helps. Sometimes that also forces the re-evaluation of whether a known “fact” is actually a fact at all or just a rumor or hearsay. Usually going through that little exercise makes the choice clear.
Today is Election Day in America and we all have to stop waffling and make a decision in the voting booth. About half of the country will not be happy at the end of the day. I can’t do anything about that. I have my little Franklin Chart done and have made my decision. Hopefully, tomorrow we can all at least be happy that this “Silly Season” is over. I can’t wait for ads about laxatives and erectile dysfunction to once again take over the diner time TV ads. I think we can agree on that.
Get out and vote!
Posted by Norm Werner 
or facts, but rather have to do with highly personal and emotional feelings and memories that we keep tucked away in our hearts. Perhaps they are the things that we place in God’s hands, as Luther suggested.
up in our hearts again. Maybe that’s God saying to us, “Do you remember when we did this together?”
love you. I wish I had said good bye. I wish I had spent more time with him/her. At those moments; when it’s too late, you realize that you let other; less important things in your life get in the way of what is the most important thing in life – interpersonal relationships.
Somewhere in the deepest recesses of our minds most of us have warm, fond memories of being in our mothers arms as a child. Many of us have strong memories of the passion and love that we shared with a significant other. Some have vivid memories of the birth of children and watching them grow up. Yet those memories got somehow pushed back in our minds due to the seeming urgency of or day to day lives. We always thought that there would be more time with mom or dad; one more Thanksgiving or Christmas; one more birthday party; one more opportunity to say I love you. I wish I had…
one more ball game, one more dance recital, and one more graduation to go to; but, then they were grown and gone. I wish I had…
companionship and fervor to comfort. Time seemed to speed up, but you always thought there would be more; more time to say I love you and more time to prove it. I wish I had…
important than getting into work early. By the end of the day, those opportunities may be gone forever. Of all of the thoughts that you could have today; don’t let one of them be – I wish I had…
I’ve posted here before about dealing with life’s setbacks or roadblocks and one key thing that may not have been said as well as Jack’s post puts it is the ability to erase it (put it behind you) and move on – to be given a new leaf or to give yourself a new leaf and not to dwell on your past failures or disappointments. Use your eraser.
have happened in the past. There is no real way to do what they do on the TV program Timeline and go back in time to make things different, so why waste a lot of time beating yourself up for your past mistakes. They happened and you don’t get a do-over. You do still have the opportunity to do-better in the future. Use your eraser.
Some spend their time looking for scapegoats – someone else to blame those things on. Still others just can’t give themselves a break and make bad decisions worse by beating themselves up over and over again. A few get bogged down in a bad case of the coulda, woudla, shoulda’s and can’t seem to get out. Use your eraser.
and the ability to go on, forgiven and renewed. Perhaps the best explanation for that metaphor is that God is the Great Eraser and prayer is the way you use it. If you honestly pray for forgiveness God will grant that to you and grant you the peace to go on with your life. Use your Eraser.
Groucho’s saying certainly rings true during this silly season of politics. If you believe all of the political ads that are being run on TV there’s not an honest, trustworthy politician running from either party. None of them are running many ads that focus upon what they might do if elected; however, all of them are warning us about the dangers of electing the scum bags that they are running against. If you believe one political attack add, you might as well believe them all.
isn’t soccer practice or a match that morning.
however, how much better and more intimate a setting for that experience is the comfort and quiet of your own house. It is there that you can have those meaningful, one-on-one experiences with God that shape your life and help you solve your problems.
press was the new media of Luther’s day, and he was a savvy user. 500 years ago today Martin nailed 95 theses (sort of long tweets) to a church door stating why he thought the Catholic Church should change. The Catholic/Protestant split was underway. If you want to see what he posted, 
Long before the printing press was invented there were hand-scribed records of things and even books. Before even that time most of history was preserved in verbal stories and songs. The Psalms in the Bible likely existed for some time as songs before being written down. And, though longer than a Tweet, Jesus used short stories or parables to get his points across. These days they might have included #Jesus #Believe.
tend to think of God in our own image. Our ego is so big that we believe that He made us to look just like him. Of course that means for many that He is a tall, good looking white male; perhaps with white hair and beard, because He is old, after all. And His Son, while born in the Middle East in ancient times, somehow ended up looking like a modern European white male in most of the great paintings of ancient Christian religion. Amazing how that happened! Even today there are those who continue to insist that Jesus was a white man, just like Santa Claus.
not just in mankind. They also saw a caring, loving God who provided for them and watched over them and all of the inhabitants of the earth. Their view of the Great Spirit didn’t have the pronoun ze, but it lacked the need to be classified by gender or even by species.
Pharisees of the day in condemning Jesus for befriending and eating with tax collectors.
politics. Both presidential candidates, and indeed most candidates for any office at all levels, tend to resort to mudslinging against their opponents, rather than focus upon what they would do if elected. The game seems to be trying to make the opponent seem like the worse choice because they have sinned differently than you. Our country has a rich history of this type of behavior, going back to the founding fathers. These days the mud being slung is not about getting in bed with slaves, but getting in bed with wealthy donors and selling out votes on issues (although there is still a lot of bedroom or locker room talk). Focus on the right things.
us. Perhaps it is just what color or race or religion or sexual orientation they may have been born to or adopted. Perhaps it is how they choose to dress or to act. Maybe it is how they talk or what they have to say that we find offensive because it is different from our notion of things. Whatever it is we find offensive or sinful, it is likely because it is different from us. We let those differences become the focus of our relationship with them. Focus on the right things.
If you must judge someone, buy a hand mirror and hold it up in front of you. Get the person that you see in that mirror straightened out before you worry about the actions, beliefs or sins of others. I suspect that, if you focus on following the two great commandments, you will find that your concerns about the sins of others will fade away and hopefully your own sins fade, too. Focus on the right things.
could learn from our dogs and focus on the right things.
It’s a new day and a new week. Let’s get started off on both on the right foot. I found some quotes that all point in that same direction:
do that so that you can focus upon what’s coming up or at you today and this week. Hopefully you learned something from what happened last week and stored that knowledge away for future use; however, you needn’t dwell upon it and let it distract you from what is ahead.
So, let us resolve that tomorrow is behind us, along with whatever disappointments or failures or pains that it brought. We have not failed yet today. We have not disappointed yet today. We have not yet experienced any pain today. What happens today or how we react to things today is still within our control. Seize the day! Own it! It is yours to make of it what you will. Perhaps we should start today and every day with this thought from Psalm 118:24 – “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Arnold Palmer was called the King of golf because of his key role in making golf successful in the 1960’s and establishing it on TV. Palmer was followed on the golf course by his army and was the first great athletic hero of the Television Era. Palmer passed away this year at age 87.
failed in life, due to severe character flaws. Certainly Mahatma Gandhi was not strong of body ans not all that good looking, but he had tremendous strength of character and mind and was wildly successful in his efforts to free India from Colonial oppression.
e lifting weights to build strength, there are things that we can do to improve our minds through training and education. We can be more ready for things that may come at us in life. We can also strengthen our characters.The key to developing and having a strong character, to my way of thinking, is to base your character on a strong foundation of faith and belief. Character built on the teachings of Jesus will make you stop before acting and consider what the “right” thing to do is in the situation. A mind trained the teachings of the Good News makes decisions based upon asking the simple question that has been printed on millions of posters and bracelets – “What would Jesus 
Do?” If you can’t see Jesus going down the path that you are about to take; why would you go down that path yourself?
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