Queen Jen's Gems

 Does this phrase sound familiar? Perhaps it came from a boss, coach, Mom or Dad or someone else in authority. Perhaps you were dreading the talk and thinking the worst. Maybe you weren't thinking the worst and knew it was going to be good. You were looking forward to the talk! In any case, talking can be good. It's good for getting out feelings, concerns, questions, desires, needs. Talking can also be healthy. It's not good to keep everything bottled up inside. Talking it out isn't always comfortable, but it's necessary. Now we can't talk to everybody about everything. We have to know what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to. Proverbs 13:3 says, "The one who guards his mouth protects his life; the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin." Based on the talks, actions can be taken for growth, change, and improvement. When certain talks don't happen, it can lead to disastrous results. Assumptions happen when there's no talk. Relation...

 Noises. They're everywhere! We hear it in music, television news, videos, traffic, conversations, nature. All of these noises share a common factor: sound. Some sounds are louder and some are softer. No matter the volume, the sound grabs our attention. When hearing the sound, we turn in the direction of it. Different sounds play a different role. Some sounds alert us to danger while others are calming. They can have short-term or long-term effects. Depending on the environment, we can't always control the sounds we hear (like birds chirping outside), but we can choose how long we listen to it and our attitude towards it. Sometimes we can hear too much noise and it blocks out what's really important. Silence is okay - I'm learning  that more and more! In general in society, silence is rarely valued, especially in conversations. In college, I took a communication class and we talked about how many people don't like to pause in conversation and that it is seen as awkw...

 To like or not like? To comment or not comment? To follow or not follow? If you've ever been on social media for any amount of time (or know someone who is), then these questions may sound very familiar. If not, welcome to the world of social media! Over the years, there has definitely been an increase in social media use. Especially with everything going on with the pandemic in the last year, social media has been  the main way for people to meet, communicate, keep in touch, stay up to date with news and attend meetings and events online. On any given day, many posts and messages flood our timeline in a matter of minutes. As we're scrolling through the posts, we have a choice to make. We can stop and read it or keep scrolling past it. If we do stop to read it, we then have another choice. We can like it or comment or do neither of those. We may read it and move on. Is it okay not to respond to every post we see? Absolutely yes! It doesn't mean we didn't see it or read...