Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Breaking old habits

                 



The Red Indians sure got their revenge for the loss of their land when they introduced the colonists to tobacco.

A plague worse than 'Black Death' was brought to England when Walter Raleigh came back smoking a pipe from Jamestown in 1600.

Now, if you are a smoker, how to quit?

Trudy, my travel agent would stand outside her office in 20 below winds to catch a few puffs. One day I asked her if she wanted to quit.

"Sure" she replied "But how?"

I explained a little of how human beings work by penalty and incentive and that, if she continued to smoke she would not likely see her grand-children. (penalty) On the other hand, if she saved all the money she was burning in cigarettes she could buy a new car!

Furthermore, I said that I would pop in and see every other day to keep her focused on quitting. I also employed the secret weapon of PRAYER.

Quit she did.

Now, three years later she is driving a new car and she has gone up a size in her dresses!

Jubilate.

Ian

Monday, January 14, 2013

Breaking Old Habits





From this to this






It was a busy day in the gym today; lots of sweat and puffing and new faces as well. I remarked on this to Amanda at the front desk who replied

"By March we'll be back to the regulars."

Ah! An astute observation.

How hard it is to follow through on the good resolutions of  December 31st, to break old habits and build new ones.

A few thoughts then on the breaking and building of habits.

Think of Mary. She was a member of staff at the school where I taught in Liverpool.

She was a beautiful young lady but was plagued by a habit of nail biting. She held her coffee mug in hands that were hidden by the sleeves of her sweater. Every so often her fingers would appear and she would gnaw down more of her finger nails.

One day I asked Mary to show me her hands. With embarrassment she did so. I then told her I would help her quit chewing her nails. She remarked that she had tried everything including painting them with poison, which she had licked off!

Well, without ado, I began wrapping her nails in tape and left only her right thumb to chew on.

I told her I would keep my eye on her and that, being a good catholic, she should pray to Our Lord.

Lo, in two weeks she was busy filing and manicuring her nine new nails while she looked with disgust at her ugly right thumb.

That was that. She wrapped up her right thumb, filed her nine new nails and in a month she was drumming on the staff room table with the prettiest nails in Liverpool.

In our next post we'll look at the dynamics involved in this change.

Jubilate.

Ian



Sunday, January 13, 2013

Five decisions that have doomed America






The last decision of this series is ABOUT to be made.

 It is the case currently before the Supreme Court. They are deliberating whether to sanction Homo-sexual marriages. 

Since the Bible has been set aside as the foundation for legal rulings in the last three decades in America and has been replaced by humanistic relativism, I have every confidence that these nine wise justices will validate homo-sexual unions.

Count on it, my friends, this will sound the death knell for the normal, traditional family model that has served as the building block of Western Society for a thousand years.

The Biblical, natural, historical relationship of a man and a woman joining together in holy matrimony(until death parts them) is about to be usurped by something so monstrous as to be unimaginable.

It will be the latest and most flagrant of the anti-christian laws that will propel America down the pathway to perdition.

Yet, my friends, we must not forget another Supreme Court where the final judgment on all the folly of men is reserved.

Let it be a consolation to your hearts that the last word in all such matters will belong to God Himself.

And let William Shakespeare sum up this series:

"But thou proud man, dressed in a little brief authority,
most ignorant of what he's most assured,
plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as makes the Angels weep."

Ian