Tag: smile

The Little Boy

Jennifred Jones

A little boy comes up to the counter where I work with his mom and dad.

He’s probably 5 and has the sweetest smile. His parents and their parents and grandparents have all lived hard lives and are still struggling, yet this little boy seems so full of energy and happiness.

So I thought, ‘What can I do to help him find a different path arriving at a different destination than his parents’…because the childhood often determines the adulthood.

I give fun colorful stickers to girls and boys who come in and several times he has gotten a race-car sticker which really excited him.

The other day I gave him a shiny silver trophy sticker and told him I was giving it to him because he was a winner, and a good little boy.

I don’t know what his home life is like but his father made some comment to him after I said that. I thought, ‘I hope the little boy can remember the words I spoke over him.’

As he left with his parents, I spoke again to him, ‘Tell people, you are a winner!’

I haven’t seen him for a while now, I hope all is well with him and my words settled inside him somewhere.

I want to use my words to encourage as many little people as possible. Growing up, the good words by adults spoken to me are still remembered and cherished.

How can our words bring life to the children we cross paths with today?

The Driving Game

Jennifred Jones

Driving has become a contest…us …against other drivers.  It’s an ugly contest.

We’re driving to town and enter the 4-lane area and immediately have to get around the person in front, speeding up and cutting them off, so they understand the imposition they have been by their thoughtless slow driving (probably they were doing the speed limit).

We are approaching an exit or lane merge and pull into that lane and then forbid anyone else from ‘cutting’ in front of us. ‘Don’t even think about it, I was here first; you’re on your own buddy! I had to wait my turn and I’m going to make sure you wait yours.’

The light is yellow, on the verge of red and we speed up to make the turn, or just flat out run the red light…who cares? ‘I waited long enough; I deserve to get through this light even if you have to wait.’

‘How dare you pull out in front of me (even though I was a quarter of a mile back and you had plenty of time)…just for that I’m going to ride on your tail and stay there to teach you a lesson!’

This is horrible! Yet we encounter these drivers each day. Some of them are us, and some of them are the others.

Accidents, pile-ups, and debris all along the way, because somebody wasn’t thinking.

What if we looked at the whole network of drivers and cars on the roads a different way? What if we all saw ourselves as members of a team with the goal to help each one get to where they’re going?

Currently  it’s high football tide and every person on the team is pulling together with a single directive of helping each player do their best, shielding them when necessary, clearing the way, letting them through.

What if we stopped seeing other drivers as a potential threat to our maneuverability?

What if…we saw other drivers as people going to work (yes, some  should have left a few minutes earlier)… saw them as a fellow parent trying to take the kids to school or the daycare… saw them as a concerned relative rushing to the hospital… saw them as someone who just left after a family fued.

What if we saw them as ‘us’ and decided to help them get to their destination.

So we… decide to let them go in front of us…decide to pull back so they can make the turn… decide to smile and give them some distance…. decide to do everything we can as a good courteous driver so they can reach their destination safely.

What if we ‘befriended’ fellow drivers causing them to befriend their fellow drivers- continually paying it forward until instead of a 50 car pile-up, we have an avalanche of goodwill on display in our roadways.

What if…?

Could it start with me?

 

 

 

 

 

 

…just a do-gooder?

Jennifred Jones

How many times growing up when somebody attempted to do something nice for someone, say something nice to someone or actually did something nice for someone, were they accused of being a ‘do-gooder’. Today it is called ‘sucking-up’.

Since no one wants to be called names or accused of the above terms, many, many people with good intentions do nothing…absolutely nothing. And nothing good comes out of it.

I have been accused of being a ‘do-gooder’. I have let the fear of false accusations stop me from doing good, from helping others, from doing what I felt (knew) was right, because I was afraid of others calling me names.

There are many accusers trying to prevent others from doing good. In actuality, if the accusers had someone do something really good for them, they probably would change their tune. But the ole’ fear of what others might think or say holds many back.

The older I get, and the more pain and suffering I see, the more I realize the need to silence those fears, expose them for what they are and begin doing as much good as possible. We are each only given so much time on this earth… and there are a lot of needs … many hurting people, hurting in all kinds of unimaginable ways…hurting quietly, hoping no one will hear them cry. Are we going to continue to let them hurt when we can help them?

All it takes is to be on the lookout for ways in our everyday life to say, Hi, to be friendly to the cashier, or the old man behind us in line, to holler across the street at the neighbor and ask how they’re doing, to look our young people in the eye, smile at them and talk to them with interest, just show them somebody cares.

Don’t be afraid of being called a ‘do-gooder’ or a ‘suck-up’. Go out there and get busy doing as much good as you can.

Prove the accuser wrong…you’re doing good because people need to have good done to them.

Dissolve the accuser’s accusations by doing good– even to them!