Author Archives: Mary Jo Jackson

The Insult

May 14, 2015 During the depression, my maternal grandfather was a sharecropper. He and my grandmother raised eight children and always had bountiful blessings of food because, besides being a sharecropper, my grandfather planted huge gardens every year and the family raised pigs, chickens, and cows. Plus, Grandpa was the neighborhood’s blacksmith. They had so […]

Comparing Myself to Others

March 27, 2015 How often do we say to ourselves when we are critical of someone:  Well, at least I don’t do THAT!?  At least I’m not an adulterer.  At least I’m not a liar.  At least I’m not a murderer.  At least I’m not a crooked politician.   The list could go on and […]

Grace and Losing Weight

September 27, 2014 I was in a failing battle to lose weight for many years. I’d take one step forward and ten steps backward. I just couldn’t figure out how to lose weight and keep it off. I’d start a weight loss program and then overeat and give up for days or weeks or months […]

Only Christ Saves!

June 11, 2014 If penance can save you, Christ died for nothing. If our works can save us, Christ died for nothing. We’ve already earned the death penalty; our obedience can’t save us… so what should our response be to having our sins taken away by Christ’s death? Should it be to just casually accept that […]

Trust in Relationships

Sunday, May 4, 2014 I’ve been thinking for a while that many if not most people seem to think that God gave us a physical life that has no meaning or connection to the spiritual life we are seeking. Like children in school who just can’t see how they’ll ever use the “random” (to them) […]

Trust God

April 2, 2014 Have you seen people on talk shows, or have you known someone, who just won’t trust their mate even though their mate has done nothing to deserve such treatment? The mate can get so frustrated that they finally just move on out of the relationship. It makes me think of how ancient […]

Keeping a Clean House

March 24, 2014 I knew a very lovely lady who kept a spotless home, but when she started having trouble with her car, I asked when she had given it a tune up or had the oil changed. She hadn’t done either one even though she had had the car for years. That stuck in […]

Advice From the Cleaning Lady

March 13, 2014 I used to have a small cleaning business in Memphis. I had learned a lot about cleaning from my mom and from cleaning my own house, but I learned a lot more once I started cleaning for other people. 1) You start from the top and go down. If you don’t, you […]