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

 

IT'S WORTH RE-TELLING. . .OH, YEAH, THIS IS FUNNY! . . .POOR BAXTER. . .

I originally posted this "Poor Baxter" story below earlier this year. But my sister, Jean, emailed me about this picture of Baxter I had sent to her *and others* several days ago. She had never seen a picture of Baxter before and just thought he was the cutest thing.
Well, when I realized that she had never seen a picture of Baxter, I realized that she has not been keeping up with my blog as well as she should *which will be reflected this Christmas* so I sent her the POOR BAXTER story.
Then I re-read it because I've had a hard day and I knew it would make me laugh.
Oh, my gosh, I died - all over again - it's still funny. SO funny!
I decided that I needed to re-post it.
I know some of y'all could use a good gut wrenching laugh - so here it is, for the second time, POOR BAXTER:

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

POOR BAXTER
*disclaimer: this story is a lot like the short stories I used to write in the past......a bit of sick humor........if you have a love of animals that is so strong that it would not allow you to see the humor in a story entitled "Poor Baxter" knowing that Baxter is a family pet, a dog, then don't read this.If however you can appreciate me laughing until my stomach hurt and I couldn't breathe, read on and enjoy yourself......

*do not look at the pictures yet.....first read this:

We own a dog named Baxter.
He was found running around the Office Max parking lot in Kerrville in the middle of the summer about three years ago and a friend picked him up because he had no collar, no tags, and it was over 100 degrees.
To make a long story short we ended up adopting the little dog.

This was Frank the Tank's idea, not mine.
Baxter didn't seem quite right and I couldn't get past the fact the he never closed his mouth and his tongue was about 1/2" too long so you could always see it.
Oh, and he had an underbite.

He looked ridiculous.........he had these Fruit Bat-like ears, too, and he walked like an armadillo (really slow and rocking-like) - he was a goober.
I let Frank keep the little mutt but I got to name him.
Thus, his name "Baxter" *from Anchorman*.

This afternoon I was working in my studio and a friend stopped by - Amanda Jones.
After we finished visiting and she was fixing to walk out the door to the driveway she looked out the window in the door and said to me *as she giggled*,"Baxter looks dead!

"NOW YOU MAY LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW"

I looked out the window and sure enough, Baxter was dead.

You can see by where the truck is parked that Frank evidently hit him when he pulled in to park going his usual 110 miles per hour.

Oh, my gosh, Baxter was dead.
Oh, wait.
No he wasn't.

That's just the way he looks when he sleeps because his mouth never closes, his tongue always sticks out and his underbite shows.
It's quite confusing to visitors, but Baxter was simply napping.

The visual, however, was enough to send Amanda and myself into a fit of giggles.
I couldn't breathe.

Oh, my gosh. We were dyin' here.
Why, we must share this reason for laughter; what with Hillary and Obama duking it out for the presidency we are always looking for reasons to laugh.......what could we do?

Oh, I know what we could do.
We could make Frank think he had run over Baxter and killed him.
Oh, stop it. It was funny.

The problem was that Amanda wouldn't run into the living room where Frank was, yelling, "Frank, Frank, you ran over Baxter and he's dead!!"
Well, I couldn't do it, I'm married to the man.
What could we do????

Oh, I know.
We could prank the boys!
Craig's home for the weekend and he and Clay were both home.............I knew I could handle this because I wouldn't have to look in their faces as I pranked them - I could just yell through Clay's bathroom at them.
And that's what I did."Craig, Blake, Craig, Clay. HURRY!! Baxter's dead!! He's been run over!!!"
Craig comes running.

Amanda and I have taken up our "backs to the room" pose at the door hoping that he would think our shoulders were shaking because we were sobbing....Craig is followed by my mother who is followed by Clay who is followed by Frank.

They all realize that it's a joke after Baxter raises his head and looks at all of us crowded around the window.
"BAXTER! PLAY DEAD!!"

We're all laughing.
Oh, okay, my mother wasn't laughing but I know she thought it was funny because she had a wee bitty grin on her face.

We're all looking out the window at Baxter who is sitting there with his mouth open, his underbite glistening in the sun and his tongue showing about 1/2" too much and we're dying.

In the middle of our laughing Frank says, "Let's shoot him. Make sure he's dead."

We were on the floor.

The End - tell me you laughed................again:)



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XOXO,