Tag: family

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:)

Hurry! Hurry!! Hurry!!! Is God in a Hurry?

Jennifred Jones

Jesus was never in hurry.  God is not in a hurry. Why are we?

I’m not talking about being lazy, overly laid back, procrastinating, and indecisive.  I’m talking about the nagging feeling that we have got to hurry up with this, and hurry up with that. We’ve got to rush to get this done so we can rush to get the next thing done.

We nag our kids and ourselves to push, push, push to accomplish more and faster and quicker until we’re running around in a fit of nervous energy most of the time and can’t concentrate long enough on any one thing to do it well, or see if there might be a better way to do it, or, horror of horrors, if it even needs to be done at all!!!

Is this you? It has been me! …too many times!!!

A little voice inside my head tells me to hurry when I’m washing the dishes, to hurry when I’m trying to organize something,  to hurry when I’m trying to learn something new, to hurry even when I’m doing something relaxing! What is going on?

God made the world and everything in it. He made it so it takes time for a tree to grow; it takes time for a baby to develop…9 long months before it is ready to face the outside world; it takes 20 years to grow up and then some more to mature, and just to gain some wisdom and understanding, you’re not going to gain it by a one evening sitting– reading Wikipedia or a self-help book.

Yes, everything takes time. It takes time to think! Allow it to happen and don’t feel guilty. It takes time to think things through to get the right perspective and understand what you want to do, be, have, help, become, encourage, start, finish. Don’t give in to the ‘hurry’ bug. Don’t give in to its bite!

It takes time to read a story to your kids. Enjoy it and make it interesting and fun for them. It takes time to remember and tell a family story from your childhood to pass on that memory to the next and the next generation. Do it. And do it well. You’re building. You’re building something lasting.

The hardest, sturdiest trees grow the slowest. The white oak and the black walnut, both prized for their quality dense wood, so excellent for woodworking,  grow at a slow pace, taking many years…no shortcuts. Some rings are narrower than others showing a dry summer that year, but the tree kept at it steadily and soon another better year came along and the tree grew more.

The trees that grow the quickest, the softwoods, don’t have a lot of stability and cannot be used on big projects; they can’t support the stress needed to accomplish the job. They have bigger pores in their grain and are not as smooth, and a big wind will blow them right over.

Let growth happen, a little here, a little there. Don’t be in a big rush about it. Let God do His slow but steady, time-consuming yet sure work in you and in your family.

It will get done, it just takes time!

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.