Tag Archives: Encouragement

Neighbors

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neighbors
With cell phones, cable and the internet, people find less and less time to go out and associate with their neighbors in any kind of meaningful way. This creates misunderstandings, fear and sometimes ill feelings that don’t need to be there.  Find time to walk out the door with the specific purpose of interacting with your neighbors.  Get to know them.  Even if you don’t know them, or feel they are not very nice, bake them some cookies, a pie or a loaf of bread, write them a short note – anything – and take it to them.  

More than ever today, we need friends and hopeful positive feelings in our neighborhoods.  We need to stop living in fear of each other, start taking care of each other and get to know each other.  Some of my closest, most cherished friends began as misunderstood, pre-judged enemies!

Summer Dehydration – Both Spiritual and Physical

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parenting summer dehydration

It seems that summers are getting hotter and hotter and busier and busier! With everything we have to do during the year, it flies by with lightening speed! Just as we survive the holidays, anniversaries and birthdays – summer hits! Here are just a few suggestions to make your summer easier:

  1. Drink plenty of water. There are so many options for fluid intake today. Water remains the number one best way to hydrate your body. It is important to teach your children to drink water – especially small children so they will grow into healthy water drinking teens and adults later. Simply drinking water makes you think clearer, helps with weight loss and keeps you hydrated.
  2. Begin every day with an attitude of gratitude! Being thankful creates a positive atitude…..which creates happiness…..which creates positive forward motion!
  3. Sit down and create a summer schedule for your children. If you don’t, you will spend the majority of your day being worried, frustrated and angry and your children will become resentful – all of which will create stress for you and your household.
  4. Make a list for your children of projects you want them to accomplish during their time off. Make sure they understand what is acceptable and what is not.
  5. Make a list of friends that will be acceptable for your children to hang out with or have over. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen – don’t forget to have some FAMILY FUN! It doesn’t have to cost money, you just have to be with your family .

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Workout Procrastination

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Exercise!  It is the one thing we can do everyday that will undeniably bring happiness, make us feel good and add years to our lives.  Yet everyone goes through the overwhelming urge to lay down on the couch, sit in the most comfortable chair in the room and give in to the urge to do nothing!  Try this…find a picture of yourself that makes you feel good about yourself – no matter how old it is. Hang that picture on your bathroom mirror.  Write GO FOR A WALK across the bottom of the picture.  Set your phone alarm to wake you up one hour earlier in the mornings.  I promise that after programming yourself to systematically get up one hour earlier every morning, look at that picture and read those words everyday – you WILL get moving!  Try it!

Celebrate Your Family’s Distinguished Nose

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Life has been especially crazy for me over the last couple of months. My family is growing, and with that inevitably comes growing pains. Relationships grow and stretch to new heights and interesting dynamics. New members of the family are always coming in, whether that is a welcomed friend or a wonderful new life. It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which human compassion, if cultivated, has the ability to expand and grow into true love for anyone it touches. 

What a wonderful system to be a part of on this planet!  Everyone belongs to a unit of people, their family, who are biologically programed to look like, act like, and in some cases even think alike. Families are so fantastically designed to help us care for one another in a way that can never be matched by any other sports team, school club, or organization we decide to become a member of.  Differences within the family are inevitable.  But, the similarities of those within members of the same family are spectacular strengths that should be celebrated.  Everyone of us at certain times in our lives will reach for those familiar family strengths to get us through something!

So celebrate them today! Celebrate your distinguished noses, stubbornness, or incorrigible whit. Too often we spend valuable time together picking each other apart – or dissecting the one who is not there.   Even as a parent we tend to focus on the differences with endless stories of, “when I was in school….”, or “that’s not how I used to do it.”  Truth is, we are all individuals, with certain particular similarities either in character or physical likeness.   Ultimately, however, it will be your spiritual belief system that will forever bind you together as a family, or tear you apart.  Do you know what your family believes as a whole?  Morals and values.  What do yours look like and can you define them.  Let your moral fiber be what weaves all the colors of your family together like a beautiful tapestry. 

Teach your children what you believe about science, love, and religion. If done correctly, you will be amazed at how quickly they respond to and feel about the same things you do.  As human beings with similar interests, physical structures, and demeanor you are destined to face similar challenges and successes. You are the only one that can really come close to understanding – even when your child may not think so. So celebrate the wonderful unit we call a family by teaching your children about all of the wonderful things you have in common – but most important, teach them your value system.  Don’t leave it up to their friends, their school teachers, television, video games or the internet!

Don’t Expect More Than People Can Give

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 Generally speaking, no one is going to truly understand that you have had a bad day at work, home or where ever it is you’ve been.  And, it is unrealistic for you to expect them to.  Sometimes the most peace you will feel is learning what you can expect and what you can not expect out of people – especially your own family.  Expecting too much from people – especially family members, will always lead to hurt feelings and tremendous disappointment.