Tag: value

Birthdays

Jennifred Jones

Today our family celebrated two birthdays! One of them was mine.

Growing up my birthday fell at a busy time of year and often was overlooked, which didn’t seem to bother me too much, that’s just the way it was. Many of my friends got lots of birthday presents and often I didn’t get any. One year in elementary school another girl asked me what I got for my birthday and I said “nothing”. The next day she asked me again. I told her nothing and felt so embarrassed, so I added, ‘but I probably will.’ So she asked me again the third day what I got for my birthday and I said, “nothing”.

So I think I tried to down play the importance of birthdays, not make a big deal about them because that’s how mine was treated. Mom and Dad loved me, but they were too busy.

After we kids left home, Mom started a little notebook. She would write down everybody’s birthday, especially little kids she knew from church, and without fail send them a birthday card.

Everyone loved my mom and loved receiving a card from her. It meant alot to them to be remembered.

It was about remembering another person, their life and their value.

I am so thankful for her good example. I love her and I miss her.

I hope each of us stop and see the value of our own lives, and in honoring them, begin to honor and value other’s lives more dearly.

Today I will plan ahead to remember and honor one person on their birthday.

Don’t Trash Your Treasure

Jennifred Jones

I don’t have any treasures; nothing I have is worth anything. I don’t have expensive clothes, jewelry or cars. All I have is me and my family…or you might say, ‘all I have is me’.

That is your best treasure! In the end when all is said and done, the only thing we will take to heaven with us is our family, so start there.

But, my family is no good, they don’t care about anything or anybody, much less me, you say. Perhaps they too, don’t realize what a treasure they really are.

I believe God wants us to take out our polishing cloth and shine up the treasures in our lives. When we begin to treat ourselves and others like the valuable treasures they are, they will begin to shine in a new and more beautiful light.

Who decided that diamonds and sapphires were beautiful treasures? All they are are rocks! …Just a plain old ugly looking rock. Think about the quartz geode…nothing interesting there, until you crack it open and look inside. Diamonds and sapphires have to be dug out of the ground, have all the slough brushed off and be cleaned and really examined to see their true value…in other words, how to draw out their inherent, but at the time invisible beauty. It takes a lot of thought to decide the best way to shape and polish a stone for its maximum potential.

That takes too much time…I could be doing something else. I would only be wasting my time.

Yes, it takes time to see the beauty in you and in others; we all have to be ‘studied’. It takes time to grow and develop yourself or another human being.

Is that worth it?

Is life worth it to pour a bit of yourself into helping make someone else better?

A little baby grows slowly and cannot grow well on its own. The loving parent sees value in the baby and works diligently to care for and teach the baby so it can grow and develop into someone who is strong and capable and able to care for itself and others.

The funny thing about caring for yourself and others is that you get better at it and you feel better. The more you help others develop, the more you develop, and the more you develop, the more you can help others.

It’s a circle that gets bigger and bigger and reaches out to more and more, widening the influence from the one good treasure that you decided not to trash but to value and use.

Take out your polishing cloth and begin to see the treasures you already have!