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What does the word “sacrifice” conjure up in your mind? What Does Sacrifice Mean to You?

To our military personnel sacrifice is giving up their personal lives to fight for our country. It means leaving spouses, children, family members and friends, and sometimes it means never coming back. That is truly an enormous sacrifice.

The spouses of these individuals are faced with the burdens of maintaining a household and the needs of their children single handed. Although my husband did not go into the military, I was divorced and left to be a single mother for two beautiful daughters. I know first-hand what this entails. It is not an easy task.

It seems recently there has been a lot of mention on TV programs about World War II and those that lost their lives. Mention has been made of all of the medals they won and what heroes they are. But what a void remains in our hearts for those that never returned home.

I was barely born during World War II, but I do remember the Viet Nam War. I remember holding my breath as my husband’s draft number came within two of the cut off. Our daughters were just babies. I lived in fear of losing him.

We do not even have to relate the sacrifice to war. How many people serving our communities as police officers, firemen/women have lost their lives to save the lives of others? Sacrifice is a daily part of our lives.

Another sacrifice that was brought to my mind was those who lost their lives under the cruel rule of Adolph Hitler. Lisa Kudrow was on the TV show, “Who Do You Think You Are”, and traced her ancestors. She learned the fate of those who were stripped of their clothing, executed and pushed into the pit of destruction. Imagine if you were a child who had escaped and were watching this from a distance. The horror of seeing your parents or family members lose their lives in this fashion is incomprehensible for sure. There was a joyful discovery in locating her father’s family members who are still alive. This brought tears of joy to my heart.

We are faced with various degrees of sacrifice in our lives. With the economy the way it is many families have been faced with losing their homes, cars and other possessions just to have money enough to buy food and feed their children.

Single mothers go without food themselves so that they children will have food to eat. Homeless people go without shelter, food, clothing never losing sight of the hope of finding assistance.

As parents we sacrifice our desires to fulfill the needs and wants of our children. These are joyful sacrifices, as far as I am concerned. We are truly blessed to have these children, if only for a short time.

With Easter approaching my thoughts and heart are awakened thinking about the supreme sacrifice that God made for us. Sending his son Jesus to show us the way and then Jesus’ supreme sacrifice of dying on the cross to save us from our sins. I am sure you will agree that Jesus’ sacrifice can never be duplicated. I am forever grateful for Jesus and the cross at Calvary.

As a final thought, I recently heard it said that the greatest gift of love is not what someone is willing to give, but what they are willing to give up …. This is a true sacrifice.

I hope that your sacrifices will be few and your lives absent of want and filled with His many blessings. Ultimately, I hope you will never have to ask, “What Does Sacrifice Mean to Me.”

Judy Conway
Email: judyconwaymarketing@gmail.com
http://fullservicemarketingtools.com
http://homebusinessinatlanta.com
Skype ID: judy.conway

Category: Children, Christian, family, home, Inspirational | Tags: Adolph Hitler, calvary, Children, cross, families, food, friends, God, History, homeless, Jesus, Judy Conway, Lisa Kudrow, militarypersonnel, parents, Police officer, sacrifice, shelter, spouses, Viet Nam War, Who Do You Think You Are?, World War II | Leave a Comment

Are You Too Busy to be Thankful?

Author: Judy Conway

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This is an extremely busy time of the year for everyone. It seems every December I feel I should have started the previous January so that I will have everything done on time! Of course that sounds utterly ridiculous. But in fact when you are like me and enjoy showing your love and appreciation for others in special homemade gifts at least starting planning for the projects you want to complete and setting up a schedule for completetion makes perfect sense.

The month of December is a month that is full of joy and activity for me. I am not only getting Christmas cards out in the mail to keep in touch with special people that have touched my life, but also celebrating six birthdays. Both of my daughter’s were born in December, and four of my five grandchildren have birthdays in December. One really needs to stay focused with this type of schedule.

I was just thinking how sometimes we get so caught up in all we have to do that we miss the sheer joy of the season. Every year I have a dear friend that opens her home for an annual Christmas dinner get together for three of her friends. We may go the entire year without seeing each other, but that friendship is still there waiting to be rekindled at Christmas time. That is truly when you know you have a good friend. You just pick up where you left off and it seems like no time at all has elapsed since you were last together. I am very thankful for these friends.

With technology as it is, we communicate more regularly by emails. Telephone calls are not even as frequent as they used to be. Think back to many years ago when dropping by a friend’s home to check on them and share a cup of coffee or tea and discuss what was going on in your life used to be the thing to do. Now we get on the computer and shoot an email. I have a very wise friend who doesn’t like communicating via an email. He told me once, “I don’t really know how Judy is feeling by reading an email. I can’t sense the emotion.” How very true. As it has been said, we get so caught up with high tech activities we fail to use the high touch things we used to do.

This plays a big part with those who are involved with internet marketing. People are more apt to hit the “delete” key when you are trying to share an opportunity, than if you gave them a call and personally told them about the opportunity you feel might be helpful to them. That is not to say that both methods can not be use together.

We are so busy we forget to look around at the beauty and blessings we have in our lives. I hope that you will take a deep breath and do just that …take a deep breath and look at all you you have in your life. With the economy the way it is, we all have suffered losses of one kind or another. But if we look around we will discover we really have a lot to be thankful for.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a New Year that will allow us to open our eyes and hearts to what is going on around us. We are truly blessed!

Blessings,

Judy Conway
Skype ID: judy.conway
Email: judyconwaymarketing@gmail.com

Category: Children, Christian, Christmas, Home Business, Inspirational | Tags: birthdays, busy, Christmas, daughter, December, email, friends, grandchildren, high tech, high touch, Judy Conway, thankful | Leave a Comment

How Social Are You?

Author: Judy Conway

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I apologize for not posting daily and promise to do better. Is it difficult for other people to keep up with their blogging? Perhaps it because I am an internet marketing grandparent trying to learn all the skills I can and become the best I possibly can at my online business? There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day to get done all I want to do.

The buzz words nowadays seem to be “Social Networking”. There are many venues out there. We have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Sta.rtUp.Biz, Qassia, and LinkedIn just to mention a few.

Truthfully, I find it difficult to keep caught up with them all. Just recently there was a fabulously written article in our local newspaper entitled, “Facebook is ruining my life”. It was written by a talented gentleman. He mentioned that Facebook does a great job at helping long lost friends find each other. However, he just turned 38 and in a 12 hour period he had received 9 pokes, was tagged in 5 photos, hit with 2 snowflakes and had a virtual” beer with one of his college friends. He went on to say that he doesn’t have time to keep up with all of this. After all, he has his career, mortgage to pay and family to look after!

This article set my brain in gear. I personally use Social Networking in my online network marketing business. I will confess that I too have located some long lost friends from years gone by on Facebook. I have noticed that a lot of people are baring their souls, sharing their spouse’s faults and other personal aspects of their lives. I don’t think my husband would have wanted me to share his faults with the entire internet world! What do you think?

Another thing came to mind. What does this communicating online do to our personal communication skills? I mean our “reach out and touch someone” skills. I used to think that emails had replaced the sharing of our heartfelt emotions with each other either on the phone, or in person. I recently had a friend tell me that he doesn’t use email. He said to me, “An email doesn’t tell me how Judy is really feeling. I need to call her and talk to her in person.”

I do think that Social Networks, such a Twitter, provide a great service to the business community providing information on software, programs,networking tips, upcoming meetings and business solutions.

We can read people’s feelings on a Social Network page, but do we really know their innermost feelings? I don’t understand people communicating with each other while sitting in the same room on a Social Network, but being unable to communicate personally with each other. I apologize if you thing I am wrong in thinking this way. These thoughts are only my feelings and opinions.

I am interested in your thoughts on this subject. Please take a minute and leave a comment. How do you feel about a child being on MySpace communicating his/her feelings, but unable to communicate verbally in person with their friends, siblings, parents. etc.?

In summing it up, I think that there is a place in our life for Social Networking, but just like everything else in our lives, we need to stay balanced. We need to exercise ALL of our skills!

Until next time,

Judy Conway

678-493-4890

jconwayultraselects@gmail.com

http://thenpn.com/at/?id=17827

Until next time,

Judy Conway

Where will 2009 lead you?

Author: Judy Conway

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Here we are blessed with another year. The question is are we truly going to end 2009 feeling that we have accomplished what we set out to do and have we been a blessing to others. I have found that when I help others and put them first I find myself on the receiving end more times than not.

In looking back at 2008 my saddest recollections were that I had not taken the one or two moments out of my busy schedule to go have a “that lunch” with a dear friend, or pursue insisting that I be able to visit another dear friend in the hospital. Both of those treasured friends are gone. I do hope they know that I truly loved them. I no longer pass up an opportunity to let people in my life know that I love them. Hold your family and friends close to your heart.

I am one of those people who set out with a determination to lose weight in the new year. When December 31st arrives I usually find myself wondering what went wrong. The excess pounds are still lingering! I must admit, it was I who went wrong. I didn’t set realistic goals and work the plan. I am so very excited this year to be part of a group of individuals in the Crazy Foxes Marketing Group. We are going to become the Crazy Foxes Biggest Losers! We will encourage each other and that makes a big difference. We have established a blog sharing recipes, tools and tips.

The Biggest Loser program on TV is a great inspiration to me. The segment that just aired in January, 2009 especially hit me hard. If a person is overweight and does nothing about it they will not only encounter painful health problems, live a lesser quality of life, be unable to enjoy activities with their family, but they also face the possibility of not living to be part of their family’s milestones. A parent not at a wedding, or a grandparent missing the blessings of watching their grandchildren grow. That gives me new determination.

If the Crazy Foxes can encourage you, or help you in any way, please let me know. This is the year that we can get healthy. Remember it is not a “diet”. It is a lifestyle change. One of my favorite sayings this year is, “It isn’t what you do between Christmas and New Years, but what you do between New Years and Christmas. That applies not only to your health but also your other goals.

With regard to your success in your business, what are your goals? No goals set usually leads to nothing achieved. You need to plan your work and work your plan. As with weight loss, if you haven’t put in writing where you want to go and what you want to achieve this year, there is a good chance you will end up on December 31st thinking, “What have I actually accomplished this year.” I have done that and for that reason I know how important it is to put your goals and plans into writing. Post it where you see it every day. As you accomplish your goals along the way it will serve as an encouragement.

In setting goals be realistic. After you have decided what you are going to accomplish this year break those goals down into semi-annual and quarterly increments. Take that one step further and break those down into monthly and weekly goals. This way it will not be so overwhelming to achieve.

There are so many dynamic social networking services out there. It doesn’t matter if you are involved with internet marketing or the corporate work place. I recently was introduced to Twitter. There is a plethora of tips, tools, relationships, and just downright great communication on Twitter. It is awesome to feel the attitude of helpfulness amongst the members. You will be able to expand your knowledge on many issues. It is another tool on the internet that makes the world a much smaller place! It is a good feeling too when you come across a person who is in need and reach out to help.

So as 2009 proceeds I wish you much success, “Aha “moments of joy, heartwarming experiences with your family and friends, and the knowledge that you are truly loved by friends, family and God. Be sure to share your love with others (even strangers that pass through your life).

Blessings,

Judy

Judy Conway

Crazy Foxes Marketing Group

Category: Children, Christian, Helpful Hints, home, Home Business, Inspirational | Tags: 2009, Biggest Loser, blog, Crazy Foxes, Crazy Foxes Marketing Group, family, friends, goals, grandchildren, grandparent, health, health problems, hospital, inspiration, Judy Conway, lifestyle, love, lunch, milestones, new year, opportunities, overweight, recipes, recollections, relationships, social networking, tips, tools, Twitter, weight, weight loss, writing | Leave a Comment