Forgotten Victories

Jennifred Jones

Nothing is going right! Not a thing! Today is downhill!!

Oh really? Have you forgotten something? Have you forgotten your previous victories?

Previous victories mean there are more to come. We need to put a pause on the downcast moment of the present and recall the triumphs of the past.

Remember when?

  • You got your first job
  • You earned your first paycheck
  • You passed your driver’s license test
  • You graduated from high school or college
  • You found a wonderful spouse
  • Your first baby was born
  • Your good idea earned you a promotion
  • You overcame a long-standing bad habit
  • You learned a new language
  • You learned a new skill
  • You figured out a difficult situation
  • You made the right decision in a very hard moment, and it was the best decision

‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about all of these. I guess I have had a lot of victories in the past.’

Don’t let these remain forgotten. Pick a time and write them down for remembrance sake. Keep a file of all the positive emails or correspondence you’ve received so when the ‘Nothing’s going right’ strike, you have a rebuttal against them.

Don’t Let It Stick

Jennifred Jones

Scratch it off of you!

When we were growing up, mom would bathe us and put lotion on us and was always checking our skin and hair. If she felt a little ‘bump’ or something on our skin she’d scratch it off …and we’d yell – ‘Mom, what are you doing!’ Dr. Mom was watching out for us, checking her kids out. She wasn’t about to let a wart, a tick or other skin ailment get a foothold on us. No pimple or splinter got past her. We were her kids, and she was our protector mom!

I did this with all my kids and got the same response – a startled yell when I scratched something off. My mom has been gone to heaven for over 20 years now, but I value the lessons she taught me. I don’t have to let things stick to me that don’t belong to me or on me. Scratch them off! I have the responsibility to do this to keep myself strong and well.

This is good for all areas of life. We don’t have to let comments, accusations, mistreatment stick to us. We have a good life to live and must live it! …Not letting somebody’s comment live on through us that wasn’t true in the first place. We’re the master of our own ship. Don’t let the barnacles of others attach themselves to you.

Scratch them off and sail away!

Don’t Stoop to Their Level

Jennifred Jones

My mother said this many times to me growing up.

Somebody’d do something to me I didn’t like, call me names, write something bad about me, and I’d start to get mad and envision how I’d set the record straight – fight back – whatever I felt like to get even. Mom would hear me talking or see me thinking and say, “Don’t stoop to their level.”

Yes, why should I become like and do like what the other person did to me that I didn’t like? Sounds so basic but in a tiff, we can’t often see straight.

Personally, I think we need to shed a whole lot of the victim-hood mentality and stand up and be the bigger and better person. Be the example of how a good person responds to insult and berating. Be the example of how to go ahead with your life and make it a better life because of what you went through! Why not? Why shouldn’t you take the upper hand in your life? Why should you succumb to somebody else’s poor mouth and decisions? Of course it hurt, it was perhaps cruel, but we’re not in the eye for eye, tooth for tooth group. We’ve moved past that. I know it sounds tough, but it takes personal toughness to be the better person, and inside that’s really who we want to be.

Yes, we can triumph in adversity, see beauty in ugliness, and become peaceful in the storm. and it won’t always be easy, but we can learn and do it – little by little.

Let’s be the beacon on the hilltop – not fighting in the mud with accusers.

Step out of the mud. Don’t stoop to their level. That’s not who you are.