Trying my hand at bloggin'

After becoming a fan of several blogs, I have decided to try my hand at my own blog. I'm not sure what I'm doing but I'm going to try.

I'll start with the name of the blog, "Can't buy diamonds in a Jiffy store." This is one of life's lessons that has taken me a long time to grasp and still haven't mastered. As many people do, I have expectations. Sometimes my expectations are reasonable and sometimes they are very far from reasonable. Reasonable expectations are: if you put a stamp on a letter along with a proper address and put it in the mail box, it will get to its destination; if you go to a shoe store, you will probably find a pair or more of shoes that you like. Unreasonable expectations are: wanting tofu to taste like food, expecting your children to never have to be reminded of their chores, or that people will always agree with you or be honest when they don't.

The problem with unreasonable expectations doesn't lie in the person or thing that the expectation is being placed on. The problem lies with the one who is expecting. I've not had to lower my expectations or stop expecting, but I've had to make them reasonable. Tofu is never going to taste like apple pie unless you add apples, sugar, and pie crust. It still may not taste like apple pie, but it will be closer than tofu all alone. Children may never do all of their chores without being reminded, but you can give them tools to help them become more responsible. Giving them a chore chart with stickers that helps them visually keep track of their jobs and paying on a commission per completed chore basis will motivate them to complete their task.

As for people, that is not so easily solved. I can only speak from my experiences. If you expect honesty, you must first give it and be prepared for it not to be received. You must also decide if you want honesty or agreement. Everyone who is honest with you will probably not agree with you. Some people are not honest with themselves so they are certainly not capable of being honest with you.

If you are lucky, you will be given a hand full of people in your life time with whom you can be honest and will be honest with you. These are called, "friends." They are gifts from God. They are his ambassadors with skin. Treasure them like the finest riches and purest gold. You won't have many but the one's you get will be priceless.

The deal is you won't find them in a Jiffy store. You can find some really good stuff in a Jiffy store...candy bars, diet coke in a can, bug juice, gas, even a loaf of bread if you are in a hurry. All of those things are wonderful and very necessary in life, however they are not as rare and special as a diamond. A diamond that can only be found in a jewelry store. So don't get mad at the Jiffy store when you can't find the diamond that you were looking for. Be happy with what the Jiffy store has to offer and don't go in expecting to find a diamond.