Tag: different

Afraid to Try…

Jennifred Jones

How many of us are afraid to try…

To try what? Anything! Anything different you’ve not done before or aren’t familiar with.

New furniture arrangement, new color, new style outfit, new food, new activity.

New learning, new language, new computer program, new online class, new friend, new coffee shop.

Why?

Fear of:

  • Failure
  • It’s too hard
  • What if I don’t like it?
  • Might be a waste of time
  • It might make things worse
  • I might forget how I did it and it wouldn’t happen again
  • What if I succeeded? How would I move forward
  • What if somebody thinks what I am interested in is dumb

We could fight these fears in everything we do, but we don’t. It seems there are certain things that alarm us. If we can figure out what the problem is, we can deal with it and move ahead.

Let’s not be afraid to stop and think about what’s causing us to be fearful so we can excel in life.

What is one holdup area in my life and why is it there?

What am I going to do about it?

Contagiously Good!

Jennifred Jones

Are you contagious? Would people be able to catch what you’ve got? Do you have anything worth catching? Is what you’ve got worth spreading?

Or have the antibodies of sameness, uninteresting, usual, boring, predictable, been working on you so long that they have killed off all your desire to be different? To be different in a good way! To be so radically good that it catches others off guard!

That’s how God wants us to be…going about wherever we go doing good, in whatever way or means the situation calls for. Be it unplanned, unexpected, unusual, or different, God will use you, if you’re open, to do good to somebody in your life each and every day. And it will be one of the most exciting things to happen to you! To be used by Almighty God to make a difference, a lasting difference, for good in the life of someone else.

Your smile at the right time can bring a ray of joy to a person you don’t even know, who is going through a very difficult time. Your ‘Hi, how are you doing today?’ said to a complete stranger can cause them to come out of their shell and begin to experience life in a new way. Your stopping to pick up something that the person in front of you dropped and didn’t see it, restores faith in people and God and His goodness once again.

Like the Starbucks stories we’ve heard about where one person pays it forward and starts a chain reaction to many people in line behind him, that one random act of kindness snowballs into an avalanche that causes good to many, many people.  So your good deeds, your good words, your helpfulness causes a reaction for good even if only in the other person’s heart, who then takes it home and is nice to his family, or the driver ahead of him.

One good deed is very contagious!

Let that good deed be yours:)

A New and Different Way

Jennifred Jones

I believe God has called us to a different way. Jesus said I will show you a better way.

In Moses day,  God distinguished Himself and His people by the way they dressed, what they wore, what they ate… that was how others knew they belonged to God. It was also one way God’s people would remember who they belonged to. It was part of their identity.
Since Jesus came, God said he was showing us a new way. He says people will know we are Christians by our love. No, it’s not by our address or how we wear our hair, or how much jewelry we do or don’t wear, or if we can or can’t wear fingernail polish, short sleeves, hats or beards. Those are not to be our identifiers. Our identifiers are that we show love to the world in the way that Jesus did. We overcome evil with good…we give a soft answer to turn away wrath… we become peacemakers instead of fault finders.

‘Why should I do something good for that person? They don’t deserve it, in fact they did something bad to me and they should pay for it.’ That’s returning evil for evil and will cause more hard feelings and nothing will be changed except the walls of hate and bitterness grow higher.

Jesus is the great reconciler who made us and wants us to be at peace with each other. Return good for evil even when it is not deserved. One quick look at how much we ‘really deserve’ helps us keep things in perspective.
Actually we’re all the same, seeking love, forgiveness, help; we want reconciliation, but we’re stuck hiding behind fears of abandonment, isolation, rejection- thinking if we can only get even it will fix their (our) problem. But it doesn’t work that way in God’s economy.
Jesus went about doing good, and He hopes we’ll do the same.
When we do good, were tapping into a higher strength than our own. We’re tapping into God’s power and He will do the work that needs to be done.

The interesting thing about doing good is: when you do something good for someone else, you always feel good too.

Who in your life today needs you to shower some good upon?