Tag: responsibility

Hold the Line!

Jennifred Jones

Several years ago a small midwestern town had a choice.

The story goes…’outsiders’ came to town with the intent to deface and destroy the town, the buildings, the landscape, the community, and drive the good people out.

They began by spraying ugly graffiti messages on one building wall. Then they defaced another wall. The town people had to make a decision. Were they going to allow this to continue until the whole town was sprayed and then overtaken by non-caring individuals whose intent was the destruction of the community? (We’re not talking about interesting landscape designs or abstract paintings; we’re talking about the other kind of graffiti….applied from a heart of anger and malice.)

The town decided not to say anything to anybody, but just paint over the ugly graffiti.

The following night the graffiti artists returned and marked up the walls.

Next day town-folk got their paint rollers out and painted over the graffiti.

Again the graffiti came back. The town-folk rolled up the walls again!

It was a bit of paint warfare, but eventually the angry graffiti artists packed up and left town.

This is a prime example of overcoming bad with good….they didn’t even have to say a word! They used their paint and covered it up over and over until it no longer was there.

Let’s think what we can do in our community, neighborhood, state, country to silently snuff out the destruction and replace it with something better.

“It’s not my responsibility… that’s why I pay taxes, someone else has to do it!”

That’s exactly why we need to do it! We pay taxes and it’s us taxpayers property! It’s our ‘ranch’! Why let our property look trashy? Cut down the thistles, pick up the trash and the sticks, organize a dumpster drive and get rid of old tires and appliances. There’s work to be done! Let’s clean up our areas, have a bit of pride and satisfaction of a good deed done together 🙂

I have my trashbag in hand! Let’s go!

ACCELERATE YOURSELF!

Jennifred Jones

Tonight during RPM bike class at the Y…all glistening in sweat climbing up and down mountains, Lisa, our instructor, said, “Accelerate yourself!”

Accelerate yourself. That stuck with me, (didn’t have my notepad handy, but I remembered it). I think she meant for us to speed it up….more like a command. But there was another hidden meaning just below the surface…waiting to be thought into existence…

To move forward, to accelerate in any area of our life…we have to do it. We have to make it happen. It is our (my) responsibility to get rolling.

I have to accelerate myself!

…accelerate myself out of bed in the morning, accelerate myself to the right frame of mind, accelerate myself to get to work on time, accelerate myself to go to the gym, accelerate myself to eat right, accelerate myself to get to bed on time, and the list goes on and on in every category of life!

Sometimes, we have to get behind ourselves and PUSH! to accelerate in the direction we really want to go.

Do you need to accelerate yourself in some areas too?

Let us push together!

ALL I HAVE IS THIS BROOM!

Jennifred Jones

What can I do to help others?  I can’t see any special talents. All I have is this broom. A old red-handled, broken-bristle whisk broom.

Then you can sweep the sidewalks and streets around your domicile and keep them clean for Jesus. ‘Yeah, but that’s manual labor, hard work, not thought of as respectable work.’ Did you know manual is in Jesus name? Emanuel!  He said He would bless all the works of our hands, so whatever we set our hand to do, He sees it as important and will bless it. (Deuteronomy 28:8.)

People notice when we keep our areas neat and tidy. They notice when we care about our surroundings. It is an encouragement for them to start taking better care of and respecting what they have. All many need is someone’s example to follow; and people are watching.

One small place I worked was very disorganized and dirty…layers of dirt on the carpet, woodwork, cabinets, desk and equipment…it had never been kept up.  One piece of equipment at a time I began to clean . I vacuumed and washed the carpet and washed all the woodwork and cabinets and began to organize the chaos. People began to comment each time they came in how much cleaner things looked. That was extremely rewarding to hear.

I swept the sidewalk every day in front of the store. This was ‘my’ store, my responsibility and I wanted it to look nice, and I enjoyed doing it. The street really needed to be swept along the curb’s edge, and after several months I couldn’t stand to look at it any more and got the broom and the scoop shovel and cleaned it all up. The next day the neighboring business was out cleaning their street curb! One good deed started another…and again, people noticed and commented!

The street drain across the road was covered with dirt and grass, and weeds were growing around it so water couldn’t drain. That was another project to be done, and a nice gentleman from the neighboring business came out to help me shovel it away and cut the weeds back.

One very rainy day I went to work and the street was flooded. The drain was clogged again. Although the drain wasn’t on my side of the road, I  didn’t want the water rising and coming near ‘my establishment’, so I got my trusty red-handled broom and walked across the street to see what could be done. It was really kind of fun, the road was deep in water and I just waded through it like a little kid, poking the broom handle around the drain to loosen up the fallen leaves and grass clippings that were covering it up, and then the water began to flow…rapidly!

I had created my own little river at the edge of the street. I kept stirring the water to loosen the debris and finally was able to reach down and pull it all out and throw it on the grass easement. Then I turned the broom back right side up and swept it completely clean as the water continued to drain.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment I walked back across the street to the store not thinking any more about it, cleaned the broken-bristle broom and set it up to dry. A while later a man came in and thanked me for cleaning the drain. I didn’t think anyone was watching.

On my way home, I thanked God for my father who had taught me how to use a broom, and for all the times we’d swept out the garage together. I was grateful for two hands and my red-handled broom.