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21 Tips For An Amazing 2018

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Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’
~Alfred Lord Tennyson

Every January is a divine gift of newness. No matter what the previous year brought into your life, a new year is a grace gift where you are reminded that it is possible to author a new chapter, paint on a fresh canvas, or sing a new melody.

It has been said,  “You can’t fix a problem with the same thinking that created it.” So, here are 21 practices that will clear the way to engage and create a greater future and present.

  1. Start each day with 10 minutes of meditation and/or prayer.
  2. Refuse to check your electronic devices until you have centered your soul after you wake up.
  3. Before you leave your home, ask God to make you a blessing to someone each day.
  4. Talk less, listen more. Pause and think before you respond to make sure you are truly listening to the other person, perhaps you will choose to respond far less.
  5. Commit to writing down at least one gratitude a day in a journal before you go to sleep. This will help you wake with gratefulness and less stress.
  6. Practice the ancient art of smiling every day, your soul will thank you.
  7. Own your mistakes and say “I’m sorry” quickly when you blow it.
  8. Ask yourself why you respond the way you do to people’s behaviors before you respond. I call this a moment of holy curiosity. Your reactions tell you more about you than you realize.
  9. Exercise a little every day, even if it is a few short walks during your day.
  10. Determine to get 8 hours of sleep each night, “game-changer alert!”
  11. Consider a Whole-30 type diet, eliminating sugary food and drinks.
  12. Drink water-water-water, half your body weight in ounces. Water is life.
  13. Grow in your generosity. Donate to charities and humanitarian groups that work to eliminate poverty. I’d recommend http://www.planetchanger.org  🙂
  14. Read a book every month. I like Sacred Space 🙂 I will be posting my list of recommended reads soon!
  15. Write down your top 3 goals. Post them where you can see them. Do one thing each day that connects to those goals.
  16. Choose kindness over rightness
  17. Choose grace over judgmentalism (pull that log out of your eye!)
  18. Choose to assume positive intent towards others when things get dicey.
  19. Limit your screen time. Break your smartphone addiction. You don’t need it in the bedroom. Turn it off, and check it in and leave it alone! You’ll be okay I promise. In fact, you’ll be better.
  20. Learn to say “NO” Life is full of many good things that keep you from the best things. Does the opportunity align with your top 3 goals? If it doesn’t just say no,
  21. Love. Pray daily that you motivation which fuels your actions would flow from love and compassion.

Grace and Peace to you in 2018

Monty

 

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Love and Marriage: SNQuotes 7/1/12

We have entered full swing into the wedding season. From mid-May through September I receive numerous requests asking me to perform a wedding. This is a season of excitement, stress and maxed out credit cards! However, beneath it all busy hum is the ongoing declarations of love between two people who long to share their covenant decision with friends and family. So, in honor of the season, here are some great thoughts and quotes about love and marriage…

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When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
~Nora Ephron, When Harry Met Sally

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I love being married.  It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.  ~Rita Rudner

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.  ~Emily Brontë

Grow old with me!  The best is yet to be.  ~Robert Browning

When the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man, the very angels desert heaven and come and sit in that house and sing for joy.  ~The Brahma Sutras

We’re all a little weird.  And life is a little weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness – and call it love – true love.
~Robert Fulghum,True Love

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet  ~ Plato

My beloved is mine and I am his   ~ Song of Songs

You are always new, the last of your kisses was ever the sweetest.
~ John Keats

By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.  ~ Socrates

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.  ~ Lao Tzo

For years my wedding ring has done its job. It has led me not into temptation. It has reminded my husband numerous times at parties that it’s time to go home. It has been a source of relief to a dinner companion. It has been a status symbol in the maternity ward.  ~Erma Bombeck

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.  ~ Dr. Seuss

Immature love says: “I love you because I need you.”  Mature love says: “I need you because I love you.”  ~ Erich Fromm

Love doesn’t make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile.   ~ Elizabeth Browning

Love is like playing the piano. 
First you must learn to play by the rules, 
then you must forget the rules 
and play from your heart.
~ Anonymous

Kissing is like drinking salted water.
You drink, and your thirst increases.
 ~ Chinese Proverb

Nothing can come close to the sheer joy
I feel in marrying my best friend
~ Anonymous

I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
when the winds are breathing low,
and the stars are shining bright. 
 ~ Percy Byssthe Shelley

If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.   ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson