Desperate for Flavor!

January 12, 2016 Jennifred Jones

A brilliant January sunshine was streaming in my office door this morning as I ran the carpet sweeper over the doormat to catch the shiny salt crystals that tracked in after our morning snowfall.

Flavor! Our lives want and were created for flavor.

Growing up, my brother and I would snatch a crystal of salt when Dad would refill the water softener tank and lick on it until we had had enough! We also begged mom every so often to let us lick on a bouillon cube. We’d carefully peel back the foil wrapper and take a few licks and wrap it back up for later…savoring the flavor. Yes, it was intense! (Probably people wouldn’t be allowed to do that today, but we’re still alive and well.)

Sometimes we just want to be able to taste something!

There’s a lot of bland and superficial in our lives…not just in food, but in our homes, our relationships and our work.

It’s no fun taking all the flavor out of something because we’re afraid someone else might not like it…we’re not trying to make something for everyone…we are sharing a bit of who we are. Make something you really enjoy, be someone you really want to be, create a work environment you really would like to work in and find out who all might be attracted to it. And if they aren’t, then they’re not the right ones and you don’t need their approval anyway.

I believe our lives are crying out for more flavor, more interest, more zest and zeal. And we are the ones who have to do something about it.

Try a new recipe, a new meat, a new fruit or vegetable…actually experiment with some new spices in a big, bold way. Change up your wardrobe, rearrange your house, get a new plant, take your family to the art museum, brighten up your work space to say, “Hello work, I’m here for a good day!”

Beat back the winter doldrums with some flavor in your life!

It works just like yeast in bread…add a little bit and it will grow and your whole life can be changed.

What new flavors do you want to incorporate into your life today?

(…all this came about from a rock of salt on the carpet…)

It’s Not My Responsibility

January 11, 2016 Jennifred Jones

The stretch of highway between home and work is 5 miles of treacherous roadway. ..curves with steep embankments, abrupt drop-offs just inches away from the white line, caved in culverts under the roadway making unsafe, uneven road conditions. Top this with a little ice and snow and one of the many accidents/fatalities is ready to occur, and many have. This road intersects with another state road at a yellow flasher.

Well that all sounds terrible, why doesn’t somebody do something about it???

I am that somebody. You are that somebody.

One of the yellow flasher lights was out for months, I was sure it would be fixed as other highway trucks were driving through when I’d go by. Finally I emailed the highway department a thoughtful note that perhaps they didn’t realize the bulb was out. Within 3 days it was fixed and I had a nice response back from them.

Several years back there was a lingering pothole, at a corner in town, growing larger every day during the winter and it would damage your car if you fell into it. I emailed thethe street department and that very day they sent someone to fill it. I thanked them for it.

There are many things that seem to slip through the cracks unnoticed that could be changed for the better if someone would speak up. I’m not referring to complaining about any little thing I disagree with, but for normal everyday things we can begin to show our care for others by speaking up to obtain the help needed.

This is my community and I want to help improve it. I wrote in a previous blog about just picking up the trash around your neighborhood and workplace for a real morale booster.

I believe we allow ourselves to be overcome in our thoughts to do good by thoughts of, ‘mind your own business’, ‘it’s not your concern’, ‘it’s not my responsibility’, ‘somebody else will do something, ‘they’ll think I’m sticking my nose in someone else’s affairs’. So we shrink back.

Yet we love reading stories about others who stepped up and caused a miracle, preventing someone else heartache, merely because they spoke up to a need they noticed.

Let’s silence those voices and begin to change the areas in our surrounds by contacting the necessary authorities in a respectful manner. Let’s not shrug off what we can do something about and then complain because no one has done anything.

I am contacting my highway department about my road today.

I will get back with you…

How about your hometown?

Who is God?

January 9, 2016 Jennifred Jones

God is good.
God is our helper.
God is not selfish.
God made everything and has shared it with us.
God wants us to enjoy what He gave us.
God wants us to be thankful to Him for it.
God made the universe, it did not make Him, nor is it Him.
God made you, God made me.
God has a good plan for each one of us.
God is for our good.
God is not against people, but He is against evil.
God is for reconciliation.
God is not the author of bad, evil or death.
God doesn’t want anyone to be out of His presence for eternity.
God wants to reason with us and help us.
God will not finish something off just because it is already broken.
God will not quench something- even if only a tiny bit of life is left.
God made us in His image.
God is life.
God is the giver of life.
God is a forgiver.
God is our Father.
God is not an evil task-master.
God knows everything.
God will give us His wisdom…if we ask.
God changes hearts.
God loved the world-He thought it up and made it.
God gave us Jesus.
Jesus forgave us.
Jesus, when on earth, showed us what God in heaven is like.
God is good.
Let God into your life.
God will help you.
God will protect you.
God will keep you safe.
This is who God is.
God is love.