Author: Jennifred Jones

Afraid to Be You?

Jennifred Jones

God made you how you are, and He wants to improve on you.

The thought came to me awhile back, “Are you afraid to be who you are?”

Each of us has gifts and talents and wonderful things on the inside that could be a great help to others if we’d just let them flow out of us.

I think sometimes we get all frustrated feeling inside because we’re not letting go to the outside what God has placed on the inside. God wants to use us and when we quench it and won’t let our gifts out, for fear of what others may think, or fear of failure or ‘what would I do if this thing actually worked?’, so when we quench the good thing God placed in us from coming out it builds up pressure on the inside and makes us miserable.

Have you ever noticed how good you feel on the inside when you do something for someone, or start working on a talent of yours and a tiny bit of progress is beginning to show? That’s the steam engine starting to move forward down the track. It’s not sitting on the rail building up steam until it feels like it’s going to explode; it’s functioning in the purpose for which it was made.

There’s nothing wrong with feeling good about doing something right, or spending time developing a skill or talent so you can be more useful to others in this world. That’s part of how we were designed.

Working together helping others in the way God enables us.

Each person is different. Each has a slightly different craft.

Each is extremely needful. Each needs other people’s help to make it happen.

We are independently dependent! Does that make sense? Yes it does!

Be the ‘you’ God made you to be, and allow others to be the ‘them’ God created them to be.

We are not imitations of one another. We are unique, individually gifted, created human beings, and although our crafts and trades might be similar to another’s, they are unique unto themselves.

God made many beautiful flowers. Why didn’t He just make one? One kind? It would be beautiful and smell pretty and that would be that. No, God makes many different kinds of beautiful flowers. The heavens declare the glory of God.

Let the beauty He placed inside of you come out to declare His glory and help somebody else.

Help God! I Hurt!

Jennifred Jones

For we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

Yes, we’ve all wandered off into other pastures looking for the greener grass supposedly on the other side of the fence. We’ve headed off in our own direction to what appeared good at the time and ended up in a briar patch of prickers and thorns and bitter weeds and cockle burs. Now our feet hurt from walking on the burs; our hands hurt from trying to pick the prickers out and our stomachs hurt and we’re hungry from trying to eat bitter weeds.

Is God mad at us for doing this? Is He up in heaven trying to make us pay for our mistakes and foolish decisions?

NO!

Jesus Himself took away all our sin and iniquity and guilt. He was our scapegoat. He took away all our blame. We no longer have to look for a scapegoat or for someone to blame when things go wrong in our lives. Turn and look to Jesus. He already saw your need and took the blame for you. He is your scapegoat. He can bear it. You and I cannot. He is the humble Lamb of God, yet He is the all-powerful risen Savior who took back what we gave to the devil in in the Garden of Eden when man gave in to temptation.

Now we have been restored to fellowship with God Himself…our creator, the Creator of all the heavens and all the earth…The One who made Niagara Falls, The One who dug Grand Canyon, The One who directs the mighty Amazon River. We are restored to Him. We do not need to fear. God is with us if we are with Him. Turn to God and He will turn to you. Hide yourself in God from the trials in your life. He will cover you with His wings and under His wings shall you trust.

He will put His healing balm and salve on your wounds so you will be healed body, soul and spirit.

Say, “God help me today.”

He will say, “I’ve been waiting for you to ask Me.”

People

Jennifred Jones

The more I interact with others…shopping, standing in line, passing by in the hallway somewhere…department stores, elevators, bus-stops, restaurants, gas stations, or just walking up and down the sidewalk, the more I notice people want, need recognition, acceptance. They desire to be noticed for who they are, even if they don’t look like it, even if they have their face bent towards their phone or head down reading a book, they want to be noticed, acknowledged and appreciated.

‘Well that’s a mouthful for you to say’, you might say. ‘He looks angry, she appears stuck-up, they look busy, I’m not going to interrupt and bother them’. I don’t mean strike up a lengthy conversation…just a pleasant, ‘Hi’, or ‘Hello, how are you today?’ Or ‘Isn’t this a beautiful day?’ (even if it’s not, it still is, because we’re alive:) Or we might surprise them by telling them we like their hair style, or their outfit, or what a wonderful family they have….something, anything positive to break the silence in so many lives, yearning for contact with another human being that even though they may appear busy—hiding behind their phone or book they still yearn for attention.

God has made us to need other people.

Catch people off guard with something positive, kind or helpful to say to them and watch it brighten their day. Whether you see the result of not, even the most grouchy person will feel the warmth of care when someone speaks kindly to them.

Yes, you can, we can, change the temperature, so to speak, in another person’s life just by loving them.

I have on purpose, ‘butted into people’s lives’ as they were all engrossed in their phone while they walked down the sidewalk to tell them, ‘Hi! Nice day out isn’t it?’ with the express purpose of sharing a bit of unasked for human kindness to brighten their day.  They look up surprised and then, when they realize, I am talking to them, they respond with a smile and a ‘Hi’ back. Not all have, but they still heard me and knew someone was thinking about them.

It would surprise us if we knew how much alike we all are, wanting acceptance from another person. We have become experts at hiding ourselves from others, and it is injuring us on the inside.

Give acceptance and loving care to other people. They need to receive it and we need to give it so we both can be made whole.

Begin today and reach out more to others.