(Love is time unmanaged by the world's clock or minutes. Love goes by as a moment. Singular and compound. Days upon days. Hours added to hours. And brief seconds of immense greatness all bound into a single organ that sustains our being. We can feel it. We can act upon it. We can commit to it. Above all true love is unconditional. Through Time. Space. Arguments. Differences. and Similarities. Love is taking those complications and embracing them. Agreeing to change and grow together for a greater purpose than yourself. ) -an excerpt from my own journaling.

The moments in life that we glimpse seconds of are the ones that sustain our lust for living. noticing how the sunlight hits your skin. embracing the warmth of the world as it feeds and changes on its cycle. appreciating how bright and vibrant everything is in that individual second.

we can capture these moments even easier now that cellphones are created with some of the most amazing camera features.

we used to have to pay for film and relish the views we saw until we just loved something enough to use our film on it. and now those minutes and seconds of life that we experience can be made visible to other people. 


You can always be a good influence on the people around you. You can change the way other people see the world.

 
I have been trying to write this post for over a week now. February has already been a month that has tested my trust in my husband, my faith in God, and my ability to let go of some difficult baggage I carry around. 


I’ve just had so much learning and growing going on, and I know that I should always wait for the growing period to pass before I try and write about what I think it means, because at the end of the experience your point of view is more aware of how everything worked together for a bigger purpose. 


A few days before February I was thinking about what word to focus on for the month when it hit me like a lightning bolt. As the word swelled up in my heart I knew I found the right one, but I also doubted myself, and God’s direction. You see, I felt that the word for the month was something I was already an expert in, something I did pretty well, something I thought I didn't need any help in. BOY WAS I WRONG….

You see, the word that God gave me in that still moment was Cherish.

I just didn’t see how God could possibly mean that I had something to learn about cherishing my husband. I knew I loved him, that’s what cherish meant right? I valued him; I was totally wrapped up in him most of the time. I just kind of disregarded my thoughts and went to write the post.

My computer froze. So I went the next day to write it again.

I exited the browser while posting it.... losing all my work.

So I tried again. I was really getting annoyed now.

I backed out of my app on my phone while writing and it didn’t save again.

I pretty much gave up at this point. It was already the 5th of February and as far as I knew my computer, phone, and browser were all possessed by some kind of impossible blog demon. I set my phone down and looked at my notebook just struck by frustration. I sighed and set everything down and went to get ready for work.



I remembered that in the end of january I got the bright idea to ask for us to have Thursday off (the next day) I had planned originally to have a date night, when I all of the sudden got a bright idea to travel somewhere and stay for a few nights. 


So I reserved a cottage in Fredericksburg and we left after work that night. Yes it was that spontaneous. I saw this as a break for both of us, and a chance to recharge my blogging batteries. 


It was so spontaneous that you might think that God couldn't have possibly have had a hand in it, and yet I know he always does. I know now that the trip was completely necessary. That trip taught me to cherish my husband in more ways than I knew existed.


Cherish means to

: to feel or show great love for (someone or something)

: to remember or hold (an idea, belief, etc.) in a deeply felt way

: to hold dear :  feel or show affection for 

: to keep or cultivate with care and affection :  

: to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely to feel passion, devotion, or tenderness for

:to keep in one's mind or heart

The thing about the definition of cherish that hit me the hardest however, were some of the words that were the opposite of cherish. Some of them are as follows. I had to really take a long look at myself and realize just how often I do some of these. How often do I go against what I thought I was so great at doing?

How often do I

disapprove 

undervalue 

bad-mouth, 

belittle, 

minimize,

write off;

abandon, 

forget, 

neglect

disvalue,

disregard,

ignore,

quit.

 As I sat and contemplated this... I realized I struggle with cherishing my husband almost daily. As a woman who guards and cares for his heart and mind I have to remind myself to do all of the above and never neglect, forget, or disregard him.


On our spontaneous trip this week I learned that a part of cherishing one another in a relationship is definitely the preservation of memories. Looking past present struggles to revisit the reasons you fell in love in the first place will always make you feel closer than before. 

Things like listening to songs we enjoyed while together, dancing under the moonlight or just talking during a road trip all evoke special memories for my husband and I. 



Putting our phones down and having specific intent to do these things together really does make a difference in our focus.We know all these meaningless facts about our friends we never see but the man or woman who we spend our time with every day gets our face in our phone and our muffled uh huhs in response.  We neglect and forget what's really at risk. We have stopped cherishing and begun forgetting why we fell in love, and in today's society falling in and out of love is as common as the next months edition of your favorite magazine. 

Instead of treating people like last months editions our relationships need to be more like a favorite pair of shoes or jeans, you wear them with every outfit, you wear out a few holes in them due to constant friction, and yet they get cozy and comfortable. we all have a pair like this.... you still treasure them and would never in your life think of throwing them out. people view relationships as temporary feelings, not as a thing to be cultivated and grown into. When you encourage and build up one another your relationship will just get sweeter with time. That stale feeling may rear it's ugly head now and again, but it's what we do to counter it that makes a difference.

Ephesians 5:29 

For no man ever hated his own flesh; 

but nourishes and cherishes it, 

even as the Lord also does the assembly;







Philippians 4:8 

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever wins respect, 

whatever is just, whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovable, whatever is of good repute

--if there is any virtue or anything deemed worthy of praise--

cherish the thought of these things.




“Wounds heal. Scars fade. Awful memories can be overwritten with better ones if given the chance. The little imperfections of our psyches become overshadowed by the people whose love we cherish because they cherish us despite our faults; physical, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise. This thing we call the human condition with all its bittersweet blind corners and senseless humor evolves from within ourselves and not because of some pre-ordained reverie we desire to cast in the constellations.

All in all it is what makes life worth living.” 
― August Clearwing, Never Have I Ever





 
The last few weeks have been difficult. Change inducing and hard. I've Learned a few new lessons along the way.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very transparent person. My life and my experiences are always out in the open for everyone to see. 
Lately I have been having a hard time with sharing and expressing excitement, or more so being afraid to be excited. Our family has been searching for a home of our own for quite a long time and every time I seem to find hope or possibilities I am let down. Time and time again there is always an issue with something in our search. The owner didn’t like us, the owner thought we made too little, the owner didn’t like that we were servers, they didn’t like the cat, an owner just forgot about us, someone else got the house, we never got called back. 
 The typical struggle of deciding where to live plus our own individual difficulties make for a process that is no longer fun and exciting, and instead is a difficult experience for us to undergo. It makes it to where neither of us has the drive nor desire to move. We have started to dread looking at homes, to despair over the process rather than enjoy it. We are afraid to even speak up about seeing a home because of the chance that it could not work out. 


I have even begun to distance my joy from my heart about having a home of our own. I have dropped my expectations, I have let go of my desires, I have dropped my anticipation....and I have struggled with the realization that our home could very well end up being something that is a lot less than what I wanted. I have watched friends get new homes.I have helped several of them move in. 


I have asked God to ease the jealousy, the envy, the pain. And with his unending grace and mercy he has always helped me. The hardest part for me though, was that I never thought I could see myself living in so many places. That I would get an inner stir about so many places and that the so sure feeling.... could be wrong. Not only wrong, but wrong multiple times. The disheartening realization that the gut feeling I was getting could be jumping to conclusions. Over and over again.

How do I contain these emotions? More so how do I keep my fear from controlling my reactions and ruining the whole experience for us. Those are questions I have begun to ask myself.

I felt myself begging God for clarity and peace, for patience, and his guidance. In those moments I would sit here crying out “God….cause something in my heart to stir. Give me some gigantic desire to move. Give me a why. Give me a reason. Instill hope instead of fear.”

The other night while driving home the song Oceans by Hillsong played and I almost burst into tears in the car. The words just speak so deeply to my heart right now. It is everything I have been asking him to do in me. PLEASE prove to me that I CAN bear this journey. I was silently reminded that my feet may fail. In fact, in most of the places he calls us to walk we can not do it all alone. 

In the bible, time and time again you see examples of this. I have spoken about dream struggle victory before. But lately all I see is STRUGGLE DREAM STRUGGLE. I need to adjust my focus. I need to remember that just because Noah built the ark it doesnt mean he didnt question God. He had fear and doubt but he faced it confident that God had a purpose and a plan for him. Moses talked to a burning bush and had his disbelief. But he trusted and acted upon that trust. SO where does my fear, disbelief, and doubt change into passionate trust? To get different results….we change. We printed up a list of fifty names and numbers that the landlord could call if they questioned our character or responsibility. We are coming to grips with the fact that we may very well have to give up our cat. We have lengthened our drive to work, we have gone outside of the counties we were originally sticking to. We have lowered our expectations. We have sacrificed. We have grown. We have changed. We have tried. BUT have we simply trusted?

This week I have struggled to show true joy. I have hidden it. I don’t want to get excited for no reason; I hate sharing excitement and then having sorrow follow soon after. So many questions follow that thought. Am I unfaithful by not expressing happiness? Am I letting fear rule my life once again?

 But in truth. Every step of this journey is a step towards where we are eventually going. Every step is molding and changing us into who we will need to become to end up where ever God has us.


You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine
Hillsong -Oceans (where feet may fail)

“At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey.” – Lemony Snickets

 
Today I slept in & then went for a walk in the woods. It was a really sunny day, which typically for my photography I usually dislike. BUT today I made due, I got some terrific nature and personal shots. I wanted to share them here full size. These were only taken with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4 :app used is VSCOCAM) because since christmas I haven't been able to find any of my memory cards for my camera! Its all good though since the quality of these images worked fine for me. 
Nature looks dead in winter because her life is gathered into her heart. She withers the plant down to the root that she may grow it up again fairer and stronger. She calls her family together within her inmost home to prepare them for being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. ~Hugh Macmillan, "Rejuvenescence," The Ministry of Nature, 1871

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself. ~Ruth Stout

I prefer winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show. ~Andrew Wyeth

The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of Nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost either upon the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866

What a wild winter sound,— wild and weird, up among the ghostly hills.... I get up in the middle of the night to hear it. It is refreshing to the ear, and one delights to know that such wild creatures are among us. At this season Nature makes the most of every throb of life that can withstand her severity. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866


We feel cold, but we don't mind it, because we will not come to harm. And if we wrapped up against the cold, we wouldn't feel other things, like the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the Aurora, or best of all the silky feeling of moonlight on our skin. It's worth being cold for that. ~Philip Pullman, Northern Lights


Brew me a cup for a winter's night.
For the wind howls loud, and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast your bright eyes, my sweetheart fair.
~Minna Thomas Antrim, "A Night Cap," A Book of Toasts, 1902


In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold. ~Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes
 
Hello 2014!

As much as I wanted to continue the tradition of my Hello photo post on instagram this month (If you follow me there you get much more content.My preferred way to blog is through photography) I had a very different feeling in my spirit this morning. So I have decided that this year I will pick a word for every month and meditate on it and keep it as my constant reminder. And for the month of January the word Renew really hit home. I have been carrying this word around in my heart for months and it has been my daily request. 



So dive into the word Renew with me this morning. Grab a cup of coffee, or tea and prepare your heart. 

To be honest I didn’t realize the connection I had with this word until I looked up verses with the word in them this morning. Then it started to really sink in. God has put this word in my heart to share with you.  I feel like honesty is the best policy, and to be quite honest the second year of marriage was not easy for us. We both embarked on a journey to become better people and that started with us both looking at some very tough stuff. We discovered our love languages, our personalities, and our apology language. ALL of which are different. Having to keep all these things in my mind when talking to or interacting with my husband always weighed a little heavy on my heart. So daily I would ask God to renew my heart and mind. I always felt like I had a huge list of things to think about before I could ever say anything, and for a person who naturally speaks first thinks later….that is a challenge in itself! I discovered through some hard inward searching that I am a very negative person, that I used to be selfless until someone told me I let others walk all over me. And I noticed that since then I can come off sort of rude and self-centered.  In all of these discoveries and difficult moments the word RENEW was my saving grace. Christ can change me, he can perfect me, and he can restore me to where I was before. The world may have gotten in and changed and roughed my soft spirit up, but I can become a selfless servant again. 

The definition of the word Renew is so beautiful and resonates within me the longing I have for restoration.

Renew from the oxford dictionary is as follows.

1:  to make like new :  restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection 

2:  to make new spiritually  

3
a :  to restore to existence   

b :  to make extensive changes in 

4:  to do again 

5:  to begin again 

A few scriptures I put in the photo above have been ones I have carried in my heart for years.

Psalms 51:10 
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind
that by testing you may discern
 what is the will of God, 
what is good and acceptable and perfect.

 Colossians 3:9-12
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self
 with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, 
which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, 
circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,
 free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, 
holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,
 kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

Isaiah 40:31
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint

I hope you guys found this word as moving as I did this morning. And I hope you feel a stirring in your heart to hold tight to the character of our Father. I usually feel like I deserve to be treated a certain way. But how can I justify that feeling when Christ was persecuted, spit on, hung on a cross, and slandered in every way possible.

This January I hope you will be renewed, restored, freshened up, refilled with vigor, and press on towards perfection.

Remember to everyone we represent Christ. 

Speak Life -Jessica Smith Wallace

 
 
I made a huge change these last few months in a few relationships in an effort to right some wrongs but also to change my life. I said I’m sorry to a couple of people I shut out of my life. When I did that my eyes opened and I saw that I had a couple of patterns in my life that needed to be handled. I was recently taught not to write about something while you’re going through it but to wait until you come out of it.  This discovery wasn’t an immediate process which is why it has taken so long for me to write about it. (I hope you can forgive me) I hope that sharing my journey will inspire you to make some changes in your life and to take a look at how one habit really can feed many more without you even noticing. I will be breaking up this journey into a series of posts about how my first step towards change led me on a road to growth that I never would have expected. 
There came a moment recently when I looked back on the past friendships I have had with women. I decided to look into this because every friendship I could remember ended with me being hurt and all alone. I blamed all of them for the reasons that we didn’t talk. It was never my fault. I think that is what first pressed me to dig deeper into this cycle of broken friendships in my life. I wanted to know that it wasn’t my fault. What I discovered shocked me, and led me on a journey of self discovery and growth that I never saw coming. 

I could remember them all starting off great, in fact in most of them I called that girl my “best friend”, we anticipated spending our lives together, hanging out all the time, and planning holidays for our families.  Somehow those friendships always died off, I let them go, and I hardly even cared. When I looked back, often times it was with such animosity toward the other person for breaking us apart. The anger and hostility I looked at those women with was so wrong. I was misplacing my anger, ignoring what had actually happened and creating a problem in my head where they were the only one at fault.

When I took a deeper look at this the first thing I noticed was that I have a pattern of holding a grudge when someone hurts my feelings and because of hurt feelings I always end the relationship. When I looked into the fact that I held grudges in every friendship that has disappeared in my life, I began to notice that whenever anyone would give me criticism I would instantly retract from the conversation. This discovery showed me that in my female friendships when conversations led to what I could change or do differently it would inevitably lead to me removing myself from the relationship, and slowly ….from their life entirely.

Occasionally I will give hard advice, and because we are taught that the truth hurts rarely do I think about how what I say makes the other person feel. The problem with this was I judged other people on their results or lack thereof and I judged myself on my always good intentions. I could give advice here, there, and everywhere, but when it came to taking advice in my own life, no one could advise me. Not without hurting my feelings. The thing is, most of those comments that I let hurt me were meant for my good. Friends that truly care about you only want the best for you, they may say things that hurt us, or force us to look at ourselves through a not always beautiful light. We are all human. We all have imperfections, and though we know that, we hardly ever let our own faults be exposed by others. We want to shield our own eyes from our failures and shortcomings all while pointing out everyone elses. 

As friends we need to encourage one another and offer up advice. We are meant to go through life together, but we have to be open first to the idea that we may be doing something wrong. That is the true secret to friendship, letting go of our own expectations and self thought. Releasing ourselves from the false perfection that we look upon ourselves with. The first lesson I learned was how to let go of the past, and rise up from the ashes of past failures. Deciding not to continue making dramatic decisions, and growing into a woman that puts her self worth into something more than exposed imperfections.
"For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart."
Ecclesiastes 4:10-12

"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Matthew 7:3-5

Make it your habit not to be critical about small things.
Edward Everett Hale 

Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.
Phil Jackson 

Don't dwell on what went wrong. 
Instead, focus on what to do next. 
Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.
Denis Waitley 


Stay tuned for the rest of the series on self growth
Speak Life- Jessica Smith Wallace


 
Hello September. My favorite month of the year, no it’s not because of the temperature change. In Texas it’s hot till November most years. It’s because it’s time to start implementing all my pumpkin knowledge & utilize it in coffees, baked goods, & smell good stuff around the house! This is my favorite half of the year. Leaves are falling, & the air is crisp with change. Sweaters are coming out; I grab my electric blanket for the cooler nights, & socks in many colors & lengths! Not to mention boots! As a tribute to my favorite month of the year, & my favorite half of the year….I am going to be doing a month long 4 goal challenge. Now as a reader you can either follow me along as I work hard to keep up with my goals. Or you could come up with your own!  It’s pretty hard for me to think of ways to challenge myself, because I like my life the way it is. Lazy mornings, coffee at noon, breakfast soon afterwards (I know isn't that the life?). However, I realize that I am giving myself too much sleep & not enough time to be active & working on the things that are truly important. So of course I need to change things up a bit & become a bit more active in my lifestyle. It is time to commit to the things that I should take time doing instead of lazing around till noon. What better time to do that than the month that I feel symbolizes change? 
Goal #1 is to get up before 9 every day

SHEESH I know that is crazy right? I know some of you are up at 6am or 4am & you’re like I wish I could get up at 9 every morning. Well I wait tables so I don't have to be at work until at least 10:45 which is nice yeah….but NOT productive at all. So before nine means ANY time before nine, I could get up at 7 or I could crawl from my pillows at 8:59 as long as my feet hit the floor before 9 am sharp. This is a goal I actually am excited about because I feel most creative in the mornings & before I got married I would be up with the sun. I've been lackadaisical with my habits since getting married and I want so desperately to fix them.
Goal #2 is fold every load of laundry out of the dryer.

AGAIN I realize this is a basic task. However I think my goals for this month are going to be simple tasks that I haven’t been perfecting since getting married. These things need work lemme tell you. So every load that goes through the wash & into the dryer needs to be hung up or folded. Thankfully my hubby doesn't mind putting things away once I have them in the folded or hung up stage. I just need to work on getting it there. I’m going to take a before & after photo & at the end of the month I will post them showing my progress & how well I focused on my challenges. 

Goal #3 is to do my make up in the house.

I am an avid fan of the “let’s do make up in the car” routine. It’s how my mom did her make up for years. & after watching her practice that habit in the car with my dad driving I realized I took that tradition & made it my own. There would be no issue with this except.

1. I leave my make up in the car (BAD BAD BAD IDEA)

2. Hubby hates driving, Like he despises it. & I actually for the most part don’t mind it if I know where I am going.

SO I am going to work on that. I want my make up to last longer & not get all disgusting. & I want my husband to stay happy instead of thinking I personally go out of my way to do my make up in the car so he has to drive. Plus with me getting up at 9 instead of noon or later…..ill have so much time ill be bored to death! 

Goal #4 is to sketch out one of my favorite quotes a week.

I’ll do a post on these as well. I think that a daily quote would be too hard for me to commit too but if I find that getting up before nine gives me time to commit to that then perhaps I will do that instead 

 we shall see! SOOOO EXCITED FOR THIS!

Join me on this project!!!  Monthly 4 Goal Challenge!

Comment here or on my facebook page to let me know what four goals your working on.


Speak Life Sisters

-          Jessica Smith Wallace

 

Sitting and talking with some quality girlfriends the other night really opened my mind to how thankful I am that I’m not a teenager anymore.  Growth is a thing we have to be willing to do and I love watching people open up to the experience of growing up. It’s so hard to admit that we are wrong sometimes and I can attest to that. I have had many relationships get harmed or ruined due to my stubborn will. I have to remember that I am not in control of what other people do with their life, and I am not responsible for their mistakes or struggles. Before I learned how to let go I had to learn how to accept advice in my life. Accepting advice is often time challenging because no one wants to admit that what they have done thus far in their life has gotten them nowhere.  We all have great intentions but intentions don’t give us results.  True growth is marked by letting go of your need to have complete control over the situation.

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” 
― Steve MaraboliUnapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

I remember growing up and spending hours out in the front yard under a tree, dreaming about the day when a man would come driving down that driveway just to see me. I was not aware of the hormones raging in my body that helped build those dreams. Even then I knew deep down I didn’t need to worry about those things, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming.  Growing up always seemed so far away, and all those things I thought were problems back then are hardly even considered a problem now. I’m 24 and married to my best friend, and while I’m so glad I don’t have teenage problems anymore I have learned something valuable about handling them.  

While in reality it was probably normal for me to dwell on daydreams of ideas of who would sweep me off my feet, I can see how relationships can be hard for parents and their kids to talk about.  Because we forget that anyone older than us has gone through that same problem in some way shape or form. And they might just know what they are talking about. But the problem is in our own thinking. We don’t want to believe their advice because we want to figure it out for ourselves.  We forget that our parents went through the same thing; we like to imagine that their problems were different or easier than our own. But in reality they faced problems much like our own and they do know what to do.

 If someone has been there done that why would you refuse their advice? Do you remember your parents comforting you after your first broken heart and them telling you that it wasn't the end of the world? You scoffed and said, “what do you know?” but as you grew up you realized they did know. As we grow we learn to take in advice as a helpful hint not a criticism. To turn it away without even looking at it is like being in a race and being told about a shortcut on the track and choosing not to take it, when if you took it you would win the race. 
Taking advice is something we should always be open to no matter our age. Our understanding changes as we get older and we should be more open to taking advice and realizing that the source of the advice determines the direction we take. If I get advice from someone older and wiser than I am, I should first look at their life and see if they have results in that area. Second I should listen. I should highly consider what they say and if they have results that I want, and my current situation is getting me nowhere then I should take their counsel with the intent to better myself and become more. A sure sign of growing older is the realization that you don’t hold all the answers and you do need some input in your life to make rational adult decisions. Admitting that we don’t know what to do often frees up our brain and heart to make decisions we usually wouldn't have made and to take advice when we want to take control. Age and maturity are represented in not only our decisions, but our actions up to those decisions. So remember when you go to make a decision where you are unsure, seek advice from a reputable source. Seeking help is a sign of strength and maturity not weakness.


Speak Life!

-Jessica Smith Wallace



 
I am a lover of all things creative. But I have a stronger passion for things that are homemade & of natural texture & composure. I also fall in love with grouped items of the same natural feel. I especially like it when that grouping is a larger one consisting of soaps, dishes, jellies, coffee, purses, scarves, jewelry and other homey goods. SO when I came across Shoppe by scout mob I was pleasantly surprised because it was as if it had been tailored exactly to my liking. I loved everything. In fact I have quite a good many christmas present ideas just from their site. Below I have included photos of a few diverse items on their site & I hope you enjoy this shoppe as much as I do. Each photo links to the specific page on which you can purchase that individual item from the shoppe. I hope you LOVE IT as much as I do!

*disclaimer* none of the pictures from this post are my own!