Tag: today

It’s Not My Responsibility

Jennifred Jones

The stretch of highway between home and work is 5 miles of treacherous roadway. ..curves with steep embankments, abrupt drop-offs just inches away from the white line, caved in culverts under the roadway making unsafe, uneven road conditions. Top this with a little ice and snow and one of the many accidents/fatalities is ready to occur, and many have. This road intersects with another state road at a yellow flasher.

Well that all sounds terrible, why doesn’t somebody do something about it???

I am that somebody.  You are that somebody.

One of the yellow flasher lights was out for months, I was sure it would be fixed as other highway trucks were driving through when I’d go by. Finally I emailed the highway department a thoughtful note that perhaps they didn’t realize the bulb was out. Within 3 days it was fixed and I had a nice response back from them.

Several years back there was a lingering pothole, at a corner in town, growing larger every day during the winter and it would damage your car if you fell into it. I emailed thethe street department and that very day they sent someone to fill it. I thanked them for it.

There are many things that seem to slip through the cracks unnoticed that could be changed for the better if someone would speak up. I’m not referring to complaining about any little thing I disagree with, but for normal everyday things we can begin to show our care for others by speaking up to obtain the help needed.

This is my community and I want to help improve it. I wrote in a previous blog about just picking up the trash around your neighborhood and workplace for a real morale booster.

I believe we allow ourselves to be overcome in our thoughts to do good by thoughts of, ‘mind your own business’, ‘it’s not your concern’, ‘it’s not my responsibility’, ‘somebody else will do something, ‘they’ll think I’m sticking my nose in someone else’s affairs’. So we shrink back.

Yet we love reading stories about others who stepped up and caused a miracle, preventing someone else heartache, merely because they spoke up to a need they noticed.

Let’s silence those voices and begin to change the areas in our surrounds by contacting the necessary authorities in a respectful manner. Let’s not shrug off what we can do something about and then complain because no one has done anything.

I am contacting my highway department about my road today.

I will get back with you…

How about your hometown?

 

People

Jennifred Jones

The more I interact with others…shopping, standing in line, passing by in the hallway somewhere…department stores, elevators, bus-stops, restaurants, gas stations, or just walking up and down the sidewalk, the more I notice people want, need recognition, acceptance. They desire to be noticed for who they are, even if they don’t look like it, even if they have their face bent towards their phone or head down reading a book, they want to be noticed, acknowledged and appreciated.

‘Well that’s a mouthful for you to say’, you might say. ‘He looks angry, she appears stuck-up, they look busy, I’m not going to interrupt and bother them’. I don’t mean strike up a lengthy conversation…just a pleasant, ‘Hi’, or ‘Hello, how are you today?’ Or ‘Isn’t this a beautiful day?’ (even if it’s not, it still is, because we’re alive:) Or we might surprise them by telling them we like their hair style, or their outfit, or what a wonderful family they have….something, anything positive to break the silence in so many lives, yearning for contact with another human being that even though they may appear busy—hiding behind their phone or book they still yearn for attention.

God has made us to need other people.

Catch people off guard with something positive, kind or helpful to say to them and watch it brighten their day. Whether you see the result of not, even the most grouchy person will feel the warmth of care when someone speaks kindly to them.

Yes, you can, we can, change the temperature, so to speak, in another person’s life just by loving them.

I have on purpose, ‘butted into people’s lives’ as they were all engrossed in their phone while they walked down the sidewalk to tell them, ‘Hi! Nice day out isn’t it?’ with the express purpose of sharing a bit of unasked for human kindness to brighten their day.  They look up surprised and then, when they realize, I am talking to them, they respond with a smile and a ‘Hi’ back. Not all have, but they still heard me and knew someone was thinking about them.

It would surprise us if we knew how much alike we all are, wanting acceptance from another person. We have become experts at hiding ourselves from others, and it is injuring us on the inside.

Give acceptance and loving care to other people. They need to receive it and we need to give it so we both can be made whole.

Begin today and reach out more to others.

 

A Fresh Start

Jennifred Jones

Every day of our lives, we get a fresh new start.

It’s a new chance to begin , because every time God forgives us for something wrong, He’s making us new again. Our sins are forgiven; we’re in right standing with God. He loves us unconditionally. He makes our crooked ways smooth.

And it doesn’t matter what our feelings say or what the devil says, or what others say. God’s word says, “Behold I make all things new!  New in my life, new in your life, right now, every day as we turn to Him.

It’s springtime again and again in my heart with Jesus.

God is fresh and new to us every single day.

The past has passed and we are onto the new.

Turn it all over to God right now and have a fresh start todayJ