Know any negative people that are constantly complaining about this or that? It might just be a good idea to distance yourself from the negative Nellies of this world. Oh, we need to be kind, to pray for them and encourage them when we see them. But truthfully, the more we hang with “negative” the more it gets inside us! All of a sudden that thankful spirit we used to walk in has turned into a critical spirit!

Have you heard someone say…practice the pause? “When in doubt, pause. When angry, pause. When tired, pause. When stressed, pause.” Pausing is good when it’s accompanied by prayer. When tempers start rising, you have time to PAUSE and start praying. What the enemy meant for bad, you are going to turn for good. All of the things I mentioned are reversible. In other words, when we take time to pause and pray…our reaction can be godly! Nobody can make you react “ugly”. You have the final say. Best part of reacting well is that you live with no regrets.

  If life doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. I’m sure some of you are thinking “I don’t want to be challenged OR changed”. Sorry to report that life will be full of challenges until you take your last breath. Those challenges are opportunities that God can use to change you into this amazing person. If you can look back at your life and can see where you’ve grown and changed, I guarantee you that you’ve been through some pretty major “storms” in life. And let me say, you came out the other side “better and stronger” than when you went in! It looks good on you!

    Have you ever been in a place where you just can’t seem to hear from God? You need advice and direction but you only hear silence. Your “quiet times” seem pretty one sided. Know this: Even when we hear nothing, we can rest assured, knowing He hears us! God wants us on the “path” He’s chosen even more than we want to be on it. When we need to hear His voice, He’ll speak. In the meantime, we just need to snuggle in next to Him and let Him know how much we love and trust Him.

Don’t be too quick to judge. We never know when we might just find ourselves walking in that person’s shoes. After seeing moms who let their kids go barefoot uptown, I had some opinions! That is, I had opinions till I took Ben uptown without shoes. And when I saw moms let their kids get up and watch tv while they slept in, I was appalled! That is, until I found out what a great babysitter it was and I could get another 30 minutes of sleep. Yep, my judging days are behind me. Too many times I’ve found myself wearing their shoes!

We all need MORE! We need more sleep, more books, more sunsets, more long walks, more laughter, more hugs, more fun, more of God and more love. I don’t know about you but I want MORE of all of those things. In life we need to water the flowers and not the weeds. Pour into the positive people and things in your life. Weeds tend to crowd out the good stuff…the things we want MORE of!