Tag: self control

Thought Regions

Jennifred Jones

What region do you live in?

Each area of the country has its own beauties and its own dangers to beware of. (I know you’re not supposed to end the sentence with a preposition…)

I live in tornado region. Then there’s …

Hurricane region

Tidal wave area

Blizzard arenas

Arid deserts

There’s crocodiles, snakes, scorpions, bears, heavy rains, avalanches, fog etc.

Mom said when she lived in Arizona, she learned to shake her shoes out every morning in case a scorpion crawled in overnight. A friend said where she lived she had to shake out her towels in case a certain type spider came to rest.

Each of us are prone to various thought regions and all the good and bad that come with them.

Some of our personal thought regions (personalities) are more prone to self-doubt, or frenzy-fits, or we fall for self-pity or control. Some battle with insecurity (this was me big time).

If we know what our (personality) thought regions are, we can be on the look out, flee and take cover from these thought dangers.

We have to be on guard against our own thoughts….guard ourselves, because no one else really knows what’s going on inside of us.

Thank God we’ve been given control over our own self. That’s a battle right there.

No need to live in fear–enjoy your region, just know your thoughts. Learn your region and its potential dangers and avert them, take cover before they become dangerous to you.

Let’s see…in my thought region worry seems to be my bad weather to guard against.

What is yours? Does fear try to sneak in? Does anger growl its teeth at you? Is a critical attitude hissing your way?

Take time each day to study where you live and how to protect yourself from the dangers in your thought region.

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.