You quite often hear people saying things like: ‘You have to love yourself, before anyone else will love you’, but loving yourself doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Many people find it easier to show compassion and love to other people, but they find it hard to allow themselves to do the same. To find true happiness, it is just as important as to accept yourself for who you are, as it is to forgive other people for their flaws and their mistakes. So, be honest with yourself, be happy with who you are, and learn how to love that person that is inside you. Here are ten tips on how you can do just that, and learn to love yourself more. 1. Forget your mistakes You probably can’t just wipe your mistakes from your memory, but, if you dwell on them, it will do you no good at all. We have all made mistakes in our lives and done...

Face it -- you are stuck with us, at least for the next few years!  And avoiding spending time with us, rejecting our hugs, and refusing to talk is not going to change that. So in the interest of peace and harmony, I am going to share a few things with you that you probably don't know in the hopes that they may help you to better tolerate us.   1. We are not perfect. We don't have all the answers. We don't even know  all of the questions! But we do know some of the answers, we know how to find the ones that we don't know, and believe it or not — just like you know more now that you did just a few short years ago, so do we.  It is often said that children don't come with an instruction manual and there is no "one-size-fits-all" parenting model. Each child is different and so is each parent. Together we have to figure out how to navigate a journey that has no roadmap and no pre-determined destination. If you are looking for a "perfect" parent, you are going to spend your life in eternal frustration. And you will make this relationship much more difficult than it has to be. So when we make a mistake (and we will), please try to forgive us just as we forgive you when you make mistakes. We are both, after all, only human with flaws, limitations and weaknesses. But thankfully, we both also have individual strengths and characteristics that make us interesting and likable if we would take the time to get to know one another.   2. We are not cool... but we used to be! I know it seems that we are so out of touch with your world. And truthfully, many of us probably are. You may even see us as boring with no capacity for humor or amusement. But we were once the rulers of our own universe. We were artistic geniuses, star athletes, musical virtuosos, popular cheerleaders, brainiacs, techno-geeks, gifted leaders and opinion-shapers. People actually liked to be around us, sought our advice and hung on every brilliant word that came out of our mouths. We were you, your friends, the people you admire and the people that you now ridicule. In short, "cool" is a relative term whose definition changes with every generation. And as hard as it is for you to believe right now, one day you too will be "un-cool". So go easy on us; we are still trying to figure out how we w...

Being a teenager is such a hard thing to be. My husband is a high school teacher, and he sometimes shares with me the latest "teen drama" happening in his classroom. We'll often laugh, but not in disbelief. More like, "Oh yeah, I remember when I was that hormone-driven, angsty person, too.” The brains, emotions and bodies of teenagers are rapidly changing, leaving teens in an awkward place of feeling grown up in some ways but not at all in others. Reflecting on my own teen years, it’s hard not to shake my head at the incredible mistakes I made as I waded through the process of growing up. How I wish I had had more older women in my life, speaking the kind of truth that Lindsee over at Living Proof Ministries shared with a 13-year-old daughter of a friend. She calls it Ten Truths for Teenage Girls—but I can’t help reading her list and knowing I need reminded of these things even now, well past my teen years. Here are just a few of Lindsee’s truths: 1. God is the author of your story, not you. That is so much easier said than lived out, but it is the Gospel truth. He has a plan and a purpose for you that is greater than you could dream up or imagine. If you think your dreams are big, imagine how big His dreams must be for you! 2. You are beautiful. I want you to hear that with fresh ears. God made you unique. He made you, you. And He made you in His image. Since you bear His image, I am praying that as p...

New estimates show that there are about 20 million new sexually transmitted infections in the United States each year. Young people, between the ages of 15 to 24, account for 50% of all new STDs, although they rep...

Okay I think this is a serious issue. Fake friends are always out there and they’re detrimental towards your environment and well-being. Fake friends are not real, meaning they don’t give a fuck about you or their friendship with you. They’ll make use of you and annoy the hell out of you. Two things will happen when you hang out with fake friends: The first is that you guys will eventually not have a friendship at all because you’re either sick of his shit or he’d disappear with your shit. The second is that the fake person grows up and changes for the better, which by then is honestly probably not worth it at all because you’d have suffered years of his bullshit. I’ve had fake friends before and whenever I look back, I wonder why I put up with so much nonsense especially since they were nothing but pathetic losers. Check the 11 signs. Take note and start doing something about it. 11 SIGNS YOU’RE HANGING OUT WITH A FAKE FRIEND 1) The fake friend always uses specific, choice words to make you feel good for no real reason. And it’s all nothing but flowery bullshit especially since a normal human would use simple words. “I couldn’t have done it without you” comes to mind. A friend told me this once. Done what? Something super easy and mundane. Don’t fall for this bullshit. Another one would be, “I actually considered you for the role”. Noticed how talk is created after all is already actually said and done. Hence, notice how talk is cheap? The fake friend exploits this. ...