I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

"I can make a difference...I can make a change"....it's nothing new. I've had that thought on my mind for months (and months) and I try to do just that every day.
I was thinking about how I try to make a difference in at least one person's life every day and thought that it was worth sharing with y'all because if I can make a difference then,
"YOU can make a difference.....YOU can make a change" and that equals,
"WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE".

SHAUNA AND LISA GIVIN' A HUG

This thought of making a deliberate effort to make a change in at least one person's life every single day came from brainstorming with my dear friend and pastor, Jay, one day at lunch. The idea was originally the brain child of one of our Sunday School classes and the list that we came up with was to be one used while AT church.

But, in thinking about it I decided that there was every reason for me to use this list in my every day life.
Wanna hear some ideas how you can change someone's life?
It's really simple!
It just takes a concious effort on your part to remember to it every day.
Now, that's really hard for old people like me - the remembering part - that's why I put God into every part of my day and ask Him to remind me.

ME....CONFESSING.....

And, while I'm confessing...I also ask Him to put His hand over my mouth and His arm around my shoulders.
Sometimes I move too fast and His just misses my mouth and I say something that is hurtful (I'm always teasing when this happens, but like my mother is so fond of reminding me, "some people don't know when you're teasing..." Oh, yeah. Thanks, mom.) So, even when I'm trying to be a blessing every day I, too, make mistakes and that really hurts my heart - it bleeds when I find out I've hurt someone's feelings because my goal in life is to simply be "the Jesus people see" (Jesus when he's teasing, usually).
And we all have "issues" from our upbringing that makes it hard to do some things.
The behavior we possess that is a direct result of how we were treated as a youngster is hard, very hard, to change, even with therapy (I'm here to tell ya), but, if we keep our eyes on God and ask Him to help us, miracles can happen.
I'm a miracle *but that's another post*.
So, if you find that you're having problems making a difference by implementing these ideas I'm going to share with you, just keep it slow....slow and steady.....and make yourself step outside of the box. You will be the one who is blessed!

SINCERE COMPLIMENT

Which is exactly what I did when I was visiting with the two nurses that were taking care of my mom after her fall (and before her brain surgery because of that fall). I was so thankful for the loving care they gave to my mother that I couldn't compliment and thank them enough.

But, you know what?

I even try to find a reason to give a sincere compliment to the checker at Wal-Mart who is a wee bit surly.

Okay, she's a lot surly.

It goes along with my daily mantra which is, "Always be kinder than necessary because everyone is fighting some kind of battle."

I make myself realize that "she" may be frantic about how she's going to pay the rent or her husband mistreats her or she has a teenager.

     MAKING SOMEONE *MY NIECE* SMILE

A lot of these pictures that I am using to depict certain attributes of Making a Difference are of my family, not random shots at Wal-Mart or the park, etc. Just bare with me - if I waited until I got all random shots this post would never come to fruition.

It's so easy to make someone smile.

Smile at them while making eye contact.

That is one of the most basic of human instincts - to smile back at someone that smiles at you. So, try it. Just make eye contact and smile. Maybe even throw in a, "Good morning!" or, "Hi!" or, "Howdy!" if you live in Texas:)

                     GREETING

We all  have our own special personalities.

I certainly have mine and on most days you don't see Psycho Jan, you see She's Funny Jan.

And that is often my way of greeting someone, in a teasing way, even if I don't know them. (That can bite you in the butt)

At a recent estate sale I was standing next to a girl, okay a woman obviously younger than me, and she had her treasures piled up on the counter and I was leaning over checkin' out just what she had found. I wasn't going to snatch anything.....she turns to me and I say somethin' like, "I'm just lookin'!!" and she has some like and kind retort and guess what...we are now friends. We have emailed each other several times and tomorrow mom and I are meeting up with her (Anne) at an estate sale down the highway.

See?? Just open your mouth and greet someone and who knows what will happen! You might make a connection with someone (and it won't be until later that you'll realize that God orchestrated the whole thing and you'll laugh out loud when it dawns on you!)

But, even if you spend the day greeting people and that's all it is, remember that you might be the only person that speaks *kindly* to "that" person.

LAUGHTER

One of the things that I firmly believe in is that a day without laughter is a wasted day.

And my boys know that...............you're looking at one of the many pictures I had to take Christmas '08 to get a decent picture of the three of them for family and friends. Every time I went to take the picture one of them would do something that would crack them up and lay me on the ground because I would be laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

I think it's a definate gift from God, the ability to make others laugh.

And I think it's one of the healthiest things you can do for your body.....LAUGH.

If you don't think you have anything in your life to laugh about then watch a funny movie; there are a lot out there! Read the comics in the paper or better yet, read up on Obama's health plan - it's laughable. (Oh, hush, I'm just kidding.)

TOUCHING ANOTHER

Think about it. Do you realize that there are people that go through an entire day with no physical human contact? No touch from another person?

A hand on someone's shoulder, a hug, a handshake, a rub on the upper arm?

The elderly make up a huge part of the population that go through an entire day (week, month) with no one touching them.

And children and all of the rest of us - we all need, we all hunger for GOOD touches.

GOOD touching and you could be the person to change someone's day (week, month).

    SINGING SO GOD CAN HEAR YOU

Oh, I hear ya, you can't sing.

You know what? God doesn't hear your voice when you're singing to Him, He hears your heart. And I understand that if you're sitting in the back of the sanctuary or worship hall or around the campfire away from others, that you might be self concious if you don't think you can sing; and when you try to utter those first words all you can hear is your voice *shocking*, it's because you're not sitting with the "family". Move up and squeeze in, then you can just blend your voice with the others all around you and you can forget that you're supposed to be self concious *Satan* and sing your HEART out to God.

End of sermon. Point made.

That's it, my list of Joy Points, though there could be many more.

If you can think of something that is noteworthy, please tell us about it in your comment.

And I hope that this post has been taken in the spirit I intend it to be taken - with sincerity and my love for people.

And included in those "people" are you, my precious readers!

xoxo,

. . .jan

 

"THAT was really scary."

JOAN, SECOND FROM THE LEFT

As you know, or don't know because you remain uninformed and for that I apologize, my baby sister, Joan, is down from Angola, Indiana, for a two week visit.
"YES!"
Oh, we do have fun! We both love junking ("thank you, Jesus!"),

she's a professional photographer and I have a camera and love to take pictures,

she doesn't mind at all for the top to be down on my convertible and

we both ride bikes.
Ahhhhh. Heaven on earth.
And to think, she's related and we love each other and are BFF's.
Isn't that just the best???

So, I thought that while she's here, I'd keep you abreast of anything interesting, odd, or just plain stupid because "stupid" can be REALLY funny.

Let's start with scary.
I didn't mention "scary", did I?
Well, I think that's because I didn't expect to have a sub-title, "scary"!
But, alas, my life is full of surprises.
Sometimes my art is scary (so say my boys, friends, husband......"Why did you put a fish on top of her head???" "Clay. It's ART.", blah, blah, blah)

Okay, I disgress.

So, Joan asks me if we have a meat market close.

See, she's an AMAZING cook and does all of the cooking when she visits.

Of course, the Tank is so excited when she comes to visit because his beautiful, though busy, wife doesn't do much cooking.

AND, when she cooks, she makes extra and freezes it.

BFF's - it's a perk!

Okay, so she asks about a meat market after we've just bought groceries at Stupid Wal-Mart (enough said) and I tell her there's one in the town down the highway from us. For the sake of the story we'll call it the "Comfort Meat Market".

We drive down to 'the town down the highway from us' yesterday and go to the Comfort Meat Market.

We walk in together.

It's small and old.

There's a stainless steel meat case across the front and on the right wall there's a hand written sign telling the public what they have to offer and the prices.

Okay, I didn't see any mention of "human cuts" but I swear I saw a man's thigh (plucked) cut into steaks. Joan said I was wrong, that there weren't any cut up humans *rolling her eyes*, but I'm here to tell ya, we didn't buy any steaks. Case and point.

Behind the meat case, leaning on it, is an older man who looks a little like this (exchange the hat for one of those white paper rectangle hat things):He looks at us and says nothing.

Joan says, "Hi".

He replies with, *definately not with a lilt in his voice* "Hi. Whatchawant?"

I think it was at that moment that we both wondered how we could back out of the door gracefully - "Oops, excuse us, we were looking for the Dairy Queen. We'll just back out of the door."

We approached the meat case and that is when we noticed his "helper" standing to the back near the large refridgerator/freezer, I'm not kidding.As we looked at the meat in the display case, both Joan and I (as we discussed while peeling out of the parking area) noted that all of the meat looked a wee bit dried out. There were two chickens in the case....I wanted to ask him how much his cornish hens were but thought better of it.

We stand there for what seems like forever, the meat man staring at me. *I'm the cuter of the two of us.* Joan turns towards me like I'm going to make some kind of decision. Shut up!

I'm busy keeping my eye on the helper.

I tell her to pick out what she'll use in her cooking over the weekend because I KNOW she feels like she needs to buy something.

As she looks over the porkchops she asks how thick they're cut and Mr. Meat tells her they're *narly-ish* "one-half inch".

She asks if he could cut some thicker for her and he tells her, *in a wierd way - you know what I mean* "I'm not going to pull out a big ol' slab if you just want one or two. I'll only do it if you want a lot.".

Hey, look Mr. Meat, it's not like there's exactly a line forming here.

Joan passes and picks out the thickest of the one-half inch thick pork chops, pays, and we head for the door............The minute that door is closed behind us both of us say to the other,

"THAT was really scary."

We hadn't spoken of our reaction to any of it until that moment (we couldn't exactly comment on the amount of blood dripping from the chainsaw) and we both had the same thought.

Of course, that started an entire litany of what had transpired and ended with us deciding to tell Clay (my 19 year old) that we needed some bacon and sending him to the meat market.... alone.... to see what his reaction would be. It was at that point that we couldn't talk in full sentences because we were laughing so hard thinking up different scenarios.

See? If you have the right attitude *warped sense of humor* you can turn "scary" into "PIMP" (Pee In My Panties).

The End.

Until the next adventure, remember that I love my readers and I live for comments and thick-cut steaks.

XOXO, Jan