Welcome Everyone to My Place on SearchwarpKathy Somers Walsh (992)    Kathy Somers Walsh    Fun with UR Pictures How the Choices You Make When You Are a Teenager Affect Your Future.Posted Wednesday, March 12, 2008 (65 days 19 hours ago.) Viewed 205 times. "I am an adult now and I can do what I want." This is how I thought when I was 16. I remember my mother telling me what not to do. I just did the opposite, not to make her mad, but the things she told me to stay away from made it more interesting and I just had to dabble in them. One thing that I did listen to was not to get pregnant. She told me that I would be lucky to get out once a month with my friends, and that she would not take care of another kid. She made it very clear that if I did get pregnant that I was in big trouble. What scared me the most is that I wouldn't be able to go out. I remember when she sat down and gave me a choice to make. She would say "You can do it if you want and ruin your life or you can choose not do it." I usually would choose the right decision. But when I wasn't allowed to make a decision, whatever she said not to do I did. I wish she would have sat down and spoken to me about all aspects of growing up and explained things to me, instead of saying "Don't you let me catch you..." and had given me the choice and the knowledge of whatever aspects of life it pretained to. Now I am mother of two boys ages 2 and 3. I am really glad that I did not get pregnant, let alone have sex. What a life change! If I were a teenager and pregnant and I knew what I know now about raising kids, I don't know what I would do. It's a huge responsibility and a demand in your life. Your life will never be your own or the same ever again. I know right now and I am going to tell you all, that getting pregnant at a young age is a big mistake! The only reason parents tell you not to do something is because they were teenagers as well. Yes, the times have changed, but some things remained the same. Parents do not want you to make the same mistakes they made, or make the same mistakes that their friends had made at that time. A few examples a parent may warn you about would be: Don't smoke-it is not cool at all, it stinks, it's expensive and it is highly addictive. You think it is hard to quit smoking now if you do smoke, just wait until you have smoked twenty years and try to quit. Oh I forgot, no one tells you what to do. Don't drink and drive-I have lost people in my life that were killed in car accidents whether they were driving drunk or their friend was drinking and driving. I do have one friend who was drunk and had killed someone else. Remember that your family and friends travel on the same highways as you do. Those are just a couple of examples. There are a lot more that I could mention, but I think you know what I am saying. Now that time has gone by and all my mistakes are behind me, I wish I could go back and do it all over again. I would have listened to what my parents told me. It would have saved me a lot of heartache, a lot of guilt, and I would feel proud of who I was for making the right choices. Instead, I have huge regrets about my past and what I have done wrong. Almost every day I think about the choices I have made and it bothers me a lot, I try to push the thoughts aside, but they keep coming back. I don't want that for anyone. I was driving past a church a few months ago, and they have a sign outside where they change the sayings on it every week. This day it read "Why do you keep condemning yourself when God has already forgiven you?" That saying is so true, but it is easier said than done for me. Regretting what you have done in your past doesn't make you feel very good in the future. I have spoken to a couple of my personal friends about this before I decided to write an article on choices and they feel the same as I do. So remember, most parents are only looking out for you, they want what is best for you, they want to see you happy with the life ahead of you, and they want you to get a job that you enjoy and to feel good about yourself. They are not trying to control you; they are watching out for your best interests. This article will not make any difference to most of you, because you already know it all. I want you to understand that you don't. Ahead of you in this life will come a time that you will have to get a job, pay bills, perhaps raise a family and deal with choices that you have made and ones that you will have to make in your future. Before you get into something that everyone else is doing and they want you to join in, think for one minute, "Should I or shouldn't I?" If you are thinking "I shouldn't," then don't. Do not worry about what your friends think. If they are your true friends they will like you no matter what. I hope I have made some of you see that making the right choices will lead you down the good path of life. No one is perfect. Just try to make wise choices now so that you can feel proud of yourself, now and in the future. Then you don't have to try and hide or cover up the mistakes of your past. Just remember this one thing -- I've been there, done that, and now I fell bad about the choices I had made. 
Permalink Comments (22) "How I could use $100 to make the World a Better Place? I have no idea".Posted Friday, January 04, 2008 (133 days 20 hours ago.) Viewed 1,961 times. I do not think that the world is going to change for the better anytime soon. What might be the worse problem facing the world today? In one word, Evil! The only way that the world is going to improve is if everyone joins in.
To make the world a better place to live in it should start at home. Treat your husband or wife with love and respect, and that love will rub off onto your children and their children. Teach your children to give when they are able to give. Get your children to pick out one toy each month that they do not play with anymore and that they are willing to give up. Take your child and the toy that they have chosen to give, go the nearest Salvation Army, women's shelter or which ever organization that you choose. Then take your child and get them to personally hand their toy to the person in charge of donations. They will be really proud of themselves for doing this and it will make them have a happier heart. Explain to them the wonderful thing that they have done. This will teach them to give joyfully and not expect anything in return. If each family taught Love in their home that would definitely be a good place to start making a difference in this world. I am still thinking about how I could use $100 to make this world a better place to live in and hopefully by the end of writing this article I will have came up with one. In the meantime I have a few suggestions of my own that could help the world. Smile - it will make others smile also. Help - open a door for someone, if someone drops a book pick it up for them. There are all sorts of ways that a person can help a little each day. Pray - for those that are so consumed with hate that their hearts will find love and compassion for others. Give - there are millions of children all over the world that need a child sponsor, and there are children probably right in your own town. There are so many ways that you can give, just follow your heart and you will give the right way for the right reasons. Volunteer - nothing is more important to God than using your time in helping others. Whether it be volunteering to look after your friend's children for a couple of hours while she has to go to the doctor, or volunteering at the nearest hospital, food kitchen or at a homeless shelter for example. Read - read to your children, bible stories or children stories. This will teach them that there is another world that they can enjoy and this will help them greatly when it's time to go to school. You never know where it will lead. Clean-up - if you see a trash can use it, pick up an old piece of paper that is on the ground and put it in the trash. If everyone picked up one piece of litter once a day can you imagine how clean the world would be? Turn off the vehicle - if you are waiting in a car while your wife/husband is in the grocery store, don't leave your vehicle running (unless it's cold outside). Save the ozone layer a bit. Plant a Tree - there are so many trees being cut down today, lets replace some of them.
Listen - to somebody that needs someone to talk to. Give Hugs - they are free. Those were just a few of the things that I can think of off the top of my head that would definitely make the world a better place to live in. I still can not think of what I could do to help the world be a better place with $100, it is such an easy question but so hard to answer. How can $100 dollars help the world? To tell you the truth I don't know. If I were allowed to have $100 for each person or organization I want to help, this would be an easier question to answer. But since I only get $100 to do the entire job, it baffles me. As I took a coffee break from typing on my computer, I went outside and sat down on our back step, sipping away on my coffee and breathing that beautiful, clean, cold, Canadian winter fresh air and I looked up to the sky as I always do and God gave me an answer to the $100 question.
There is a passage in the Bible where Jesus fed a multitude of people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Matthew 14:15-21 (The New King James Version) 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." 16 But Jesus said to them "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17 And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." 18 He said, "Bring them here to Me." 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to Heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. After remembering this passage it came to me what to do with the $100. I would give it to Jesus and let him tell my heart what to do with it. He fed thousands with a little, so I can only imagine what he could do with $100. I wish I had of thought of this idea myself, but I guess God talks to us in different ways and at different times. Now that I have this idea planted into my heart, I am going to use my own funds and take exactly $100, use it the way my heart tells me to. I want to share with you everything that I have learned and where it directed me. I will post it in my comments area below when the time comes.
Permalink Comments (50) |
Archives:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
