seen on alt.quotations

[autographedcat]

" Thus we come to the fourth law of success and happiness ...for I gave you one more power, a power so great that not even my angels possess it.

I gave you ... the power to choose.

With this gift I placed you even above my angels ... for angels are not free to choose sin. I gave you complete control over your destiny. I told you to determine, for yourself, your own nature in accordance with your own free will. Neither heavenly nor earthly in nature, you were free to fashion yourself in whatever form you preferred. You had the power to choose to degenerate into the lowest forms of life, but you also had the power, out of your soul's judgement, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.

I have never withdrawn your great power, the power to choose.

What have you done with this tremendous force? Look at yourself. Think of the choices you have made in your life and recall, now, those bitter moments when you would fall to your knees if only you had the opportunity to choose again.

What is past is past ... and now you know the fourth great law of happiness and success ... Use wisely your power of choice.

Choose to love ... rather than hate.
Choose to laugh ... rather than cry.
Choose to create ... rather than destroy.
Choose to persevere ... rather than quit.
Choose to praise ... rather than gossip.
Choose to heal ... rather than wound.
Choose to give ... rather than steal.
Choose to act ... rather than procastinate.
Choose to grow ... rather than rot.
Choose to pray ... rather than curse.
Choose to live ... rather than die."

-- Og Mandino, The God Memorandum

Comments

[poltr1]

Og has written a lot of good stuff over the years, including many books. Even though his works lean toward the Christian point of view, they don't do so in a heavy-handed manner.

I had the pleasure of meeting him several years ago at a booksigning when _The Twelfth Angel_ came out.

My favorite quote of his is from _The Greatest Salesman In The World_, from the scroll marked III: "I will persist until I succeed. I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will hear not those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. Let them join the sheep. The slaughter house of failure is not my destiny."

I'm sad to say that he passed away sometime in the late 1990s.

[poltr1]

...but his message lives on.

Visit the Official Og Mandino web site at www.ogmandino.com .

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Yes! Whether given by a god or not... we *do* have that power.
Very yes. Need to work on the choosing to act rather than procrastinating a lot still...

Yes. Thank you. *hug*