Money Saving Mom®

During the month of October, I’m following along with Edie & Ruth on their 31 Days of Less & More journey. I’d love for you to join in by reading the posts and completing the projects, or just sit back and read along each day.

Less Judgment

If you’ve been reading my blogs since the beginning (way back before MoneySavingMom.com even existed!), you know I started out as a very black & white, judgmental blogger. I was in my early twenties and I thought I had all of life pretty well figured out.

Oh how I shudder to think of some of the downright harsh things I posted in the early days of blogging! (If I offended you by my dogmatic attitude, would you please email me so I can personally ask forgiveness?)

And it wasn’t just in my blogging. My egotistical, always-right viewpoint across the board offended people, hurt people, and ruined a lot of would-be relationships.

God had to pull the rug from under me and bring me to a place of complete brokenness before I discovered this amazing thing called grace and compassion. It’s been a journey… hard at times, but overall so beautiful. The more I walk this path, the more I learn — and the more I realize how much I don’t know!

More Acceptance

Once I stopped pointing fingers and started offering a helping hand, I realized that the people I’d once criticized weren’t anything like I thought they were. In fact, I’ve learned so much about grace, love, and life from people whom I once upon a time wouldn’t associate with.

I’m also learning that heated words condemning another person’s choices don’t usually solve anything. Loving and listening to a person with a heart full of compassion and care… now that’s the way to make an impact. It’s much more powerful that the loudest, sharpest words ever will be.

For more on this topic, check out Ruth’s post on Less Judgment and Edie’s post on More Acceptance. I promise you’ll be inspired and blessed!

During the month of October, I’m following along with Edie & Ruth on their 31 Days of Less & More journey. I’d love for you to join in by reading the posts and completing the projects, or just sit back and read along each day.

Less Anxiety

Life is full of struggles and difficulties. In fact, probably for most of us, rarely a day goes by that we do not have something (or many somethings!) to be stressed about.

However, more and more I’ve been realizing that John G. Miller is right: “Stress is a choice.” You can’t always choose your circumstances, but you can always choose your response to those circumstances.

When hard things come, you can either become uptight and anxious, or you can choose to be calm and cheerful. Sitting and stewing never accomplishes anything good, so you might as well opt to look for the silver lining and choose gratitude instead.

No matter what you’re going through, there is always something to be thankful for. No matter how hard your situation, it could always be worse. So make a choice to rejoice!

More Rest

In the past few years, I’ve become a big advocate for rest. Not only having margin and white space in our schedules, but also just plain getting more sleep.

Burning the candle at both ends doesn’t make you superwoman; it makes you exhausted. I learned this lesson the hard way in the first six years of our marriage. As a result, I’ve now made sleep a high priority in my life. And I’ve learned that I actually get a lot more done when I’m well rested, plus I feel a lot calmer about life in general.

So I’ve been trying to go to be earlier and, on the nights when I don’t go to bed early, I let myself sleep in a little. It makes such a difference in my productivity — and in my overall demeanor.

Here’s what I wrote about sleep in my 15 Ways to Have More Energy post:

I know, I know. It’s hard to get sleep when you have a hundred other things you feel you should be doing.

However, if you don’t take the time to rest, you’ll constantly be running on fumes. Rearrange your schedule, turn off the electronics, do relaxing things before bed, go to bed early (if at all possible), take a 30-minute nap in the afternoon, or do whatever else it takes to make sure you are getting good sleep at least 5-6 nights each week (I’ve found that if I sleep well at least five nights each week, I’m rested enough that I can have a late night once or twice a week without it really affecting me!)

Don’t know whether you’re getting adequate sleep? I’ve heard that a good barometer is to see if you’re tired at all midday or afternoon. If you are, you aren’t getting enough sleep at night. Keep extending your sleep at night by 15 to 30 minutes until you no longer feel tired in the afternoon.

For more on this topic, check out Ruth’s post on Less Anxiety and Edie’s post on More Rest. I promise you’ll be inspired and blessed!

During the month of October, I’m following along with Edie & Ruth on their 31 Days of Less & More journey. I’d love for you to join in by reading the posts and completing the projects, or just sit back and read along each day.

Less Bitterness

Not too long ago, a long-time acquaintance of mine did something really hurtful toward me. It wasn’t one of those situations where someone inadvertently hurt you; this was a clear personal attack on me by someone whom I considered to be my friend.

It was upsetting and painful and I wanted to wallow in self-pity and anger over her actions. Truthfully, for a few days, I did. But as I sat and sulked over the wounds this person had caused in my heart, I began to realize this was accomplishing nothing good.

What she did was wrong, there’s no denying that. But if I respond in anger and develop a long-term bitter spirit toward her, I’m just as wrong.

Her actions toward me are her responsibility. But my response to her is my responsibility. I can’t change what she did, but I can choose to forgive.

Bitterness and anger toward someone will never fix a problem. It will only hurt us — and probably the other person, too.

More Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a choice we can make — regardless of whether the other party asks for forgiveness or admits they are wrong. It’s never an easy choice, but it’s always the right choice.

Even though I was angry about this situation, in my heart of hearts, I wanted to choose forgiveness. So I started refusing to allow those upset thoughts to fester in my mind. Instead, I chose to pray for this woman and continually ask God to help me love and forgive her.

Amazingly enough, as I changed my attitude toward the situation, I started to really love this woman and be able to overlook what she had done. In fact, within a few days, I decided I wanted to back up my forgiveness with tangible actions.

So, I thought about something I could do to bless this woman and then I made some things for her, bought a few things I knew she would appreciate, wrote a note, and delivered the goodies to her. Can I just tell you that this felt so very good? After I delivered the gifts to her, I just couldn’t help but smile.

Yes, forgiveness is so much better than bitterness!

For more on this topic, check out Ruth’s post on Less Bitterness and Edie’s post on More Forgiveness. I promise you’ll be inspired and blessed!