good advice and words to live by

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope your week got started off well! The inspiration behind today's post comes from Pinterest; I have this board there that I've titled "words to live by" that I think are always good reminders for myself. Once again, I always figure if it's something I need to hear, chances are that one of you will feel the same way. 

I love this first reminder of things we can do on a monthly basis. But let's face it: it doesn't matter how you go about doing things like this that bring you joy, the point is that it's good to do the things and to make the plans while we're able to enjoy them. The biggest way that I recharge my batteries is to be alone. I have said before that I am an introvert, but I'm an extroverted introvert. I love being around people, and I have the gift of being able to carry a conversation. I'm also a great listener, and people love that, so all of these things mean that I'm easy to talk to, so I talk to people all the time. That can be draining after so long, though, which is why alone time is good for me. I get time alone on Mondays and I love that day.

How do you recharge your batteries?

I love this reminder below. It's such a wonderful thing to be able to make people feel valued. I think about this often in terms of friendships. I invest a lot of time into the ones that I have, and mine do the same in return. There is nothing quite like that feeling, because I struggled with friends throughout my younger years. I had the kind of friends that my mom always referred to as "fair weather friends"; they were there for me to be around as long as they didn't have something better to do. Once a better invitation came along, they'd ditch me for someone else. It was later in like that I learned the treasure of a good friend; the best kind of friend is a godly friend, though, one who prays for you and who loves you as you are. Do you have this in your life? 

I needed this reminder on the day that I wrote this post. I haven't been in the best mood since Friday, and it took me a few day to figure it all out. Call it hormones or unreasonable aggravation or whatever you want, but I was in a much better place mentally yesterday afternoon. Sometimes I just talk to the Lord about it all; yesterday morning I confessed to Him my terrible mood, and could He please show me what to do to turn it around again. I never heard an audible answer or anything, but that led me to praying, which led me to reading His word, which led me to my Bible study homework. I'm always grateful for His presence in my life, and for how He works. 

And on that same kind of note, we're all human, and we all mess up daily. People need to see and hear us admit our mistakes. It humanizes us and it lets others know that we're like them. It also matters what we do after we mess up; apologies may need to be said, or attitude adjustments may need to be made. Sometimes the Lord allows me to be humbled when I need the reminder that I am not that big of a deal. (Sometimes I think I am.)

I love these little 15 minute things we can do to make our day and/or space better. I'm going to go do one of them as soon as I'm finished writing this!

And lastly, be careful who you hang around with. Bad company corrupts good morals, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:33. Whoever we hang around the most is who we're going to start acting like, and our friends' behavior says a lot about them, and about us. Personally, I can't be around someone who's always grumpy or who complains a lot. It starts to drag me down with them! I realize not everyone is happy 24/7 and we all have our days, right? But this is a great reminder to myself on the type of person I want to be. I want to be someone who is happy, friendly, kind, encouraging, and who loves generously. I also feel like sometimes it's good to just keep our mouths shut when we're in a bad mood, lest we say something in that behavior that we may later regret. 

It's your turn! What is a great piece of advice that you have to share with me today? I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.