Tag: example

A Citizen’s Response -ability

Jennifred Jones

I am a citizen of the United States of America. I was born here. I am granted full rights and responsibilities being an American citizen according to the US constitution.

We are governed by law through elected officials who are to have our best interests at heart, because they are one of us.

This places responsibility upon me to be watchful of my country, to live by its principles and to help my officials and representatives follow what we elected them for. We pay our taxes to have this done, and we want to make sure our hard-earned money is going to a profitable return.

I realize this comment may open a big can of worms, and I’m not going fishing!

Let me give a local example fresh from today. We’ve had multiple inches of rain where I live. One of the central parking lot drains at a nearby apartment complex doesn’t drain right. Many times water stands in the lot and comes halfway up car’s tires when they drive through. The mailbox unit was engulfed so the mailman didn’t stop -he couldn’t get to the boxes for all the water. It’s been over 6 hours and water is still there. Residents have literally waded in ankle deep water to reach their cars.

I felt it my responsibility to call the city and inquire about the drain since this has been repetitive. After several calls I reached the right person. They were unaware of the situation. The helpful official said he’d check out whose responsibility it was – the city or the apartment complex. I told him I felt bad for the residents living there, (including a man with a limp who had to walk all the way around the big ‘puddle’ to get to his car.) There was no other interest of my own…just noticing other’s wading through their difficulty.

How simple it was for me to call. Yes, it took time and effort, but I thought this is why we pay taxes – to have things run smoothly for the citizenry. I spoke with the city official as person to person, citizen to citizen – both working towards a common good.

What if every time something needed attention, we citizens did our responsible part and contacted whoever we needed to and didn’t think, ‘someone else will take care of it’. We are the someone else and we need to take care of it. How will our officials know what we need if we don’t tell them? This is how America works and how we keep a big country small and approachable.

I’m glad we live here and can help make things better!

What do you think?

Birthdays

Jennifred Jones

Today our family celebrated two birthdays! One of them was mine.

Growing up my birthday fell at a busy time of year and often was overlooked, which didn’t seem to bother me too much, that’s just the way it was. Many of my friends got lots of birthday presents and often I didn’t get any. One year in elementary school another girl asked me what I got for my birthday and I said “nothing”. The next day she asked me again. I told her nothing and felt so embarrassed, so I added, ‘but I probably will.’ So she asked me again the third day what I got for my birthday and I said, “nothing”.

So I think I tried to down play the importance of birthdays, not make a big deal about them because that’s how mine was treated. Mom and Dad loved me, but they were too busy.

After we kids left home, Mom started a little notebook. She would write down everybody’s birthday, especially little kids she knew from church, and without fail send them a birthday card.

Everyone loved my mom and loved receiving a card from her. It meant alot to them to be remembered.

It was about remembering another person, their life and their value.

I am so thankful for her good example. I love her and I miss her.

I hope each of us stop and see the value of our own lives, and in honoring them, begin to honor and value other’s lives more dearly.

Today I will plan ahead to remember and honor one person on their birthday.

The ‘Scream’ Door

Jennifred Jones

When we were little, before central air conditioning, mother left the doors open on good days to let the fresh air blow through the screen door. For some reason my brother called it the scream door. Maybe it was because mom would go to the door and yell for us kids to come in or stop fighting or whatever else we were doing outside that she didn’t want us doing.

I don’t want to be a screamer.

There were times when my kids were small that I used to find myself raising my voice and yelling at them — a lot! I hated to see the look on their little faces when I yelled at them, but I was desperate to gain control. We have 6 kids, all grown now, and sometimes I didn’t know the best way to handle things so I’d end up yelling.

One day after I’d gotten them all to bed, at that time we had 4, I began to think about my yelling at them and realized I didn’t want my kids growing up and all they could remember was their mother yelling at them. How horrible would that be?!!!

I made a quality decision right then that I’d not raise my voice and yell at them anymore and asked God to hold me to it and help me.

Everytime I was tempted to yell at them I’d remember what I didn’t want to be remembered for and I’d be able to control my voice. I also found myself apologizing to all my kids for yelling at them and told them how much I really loved them and wanted them. I’ve had to apologize to them a lot since then about other things, but I believe I have my kids’ hearts and they have mine.

Now that the grandkids are coming along, I don’t want them being yelled at and I am so glad God helped me change my example. I’m sure they will go through trying times as I did, but they will work it through and hopefully make the better choice each time.

Is there someone you need to talk to about your voice?

A soft answer turns away anger.

You will end up doing good things.