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“When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be noble to pretend you do not notice them.”

— Lemony Snicket

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This is so easy to imagine though and I love the advice.

I asked Scrooge McDuck how I hug a puppy correctly. He replied that there’s no right way to hug a puppy, and that hugging puppies was easier than hugging humans. Best advice I ever got.

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Due to COVID-19, your request may be delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I tried to call the fire department to report my neighbors’ house fire. The 911 operator told me they couldn’t help me, because I now had to go online and fill out a request for firefighting form. They’d get back to me in 6-8 weeks if it got approved.

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Pretty sure Dierks Bentley sang a song with this general feeling in it

“If you ask me how many times you’ve crossed my mind, I’d say once, because you never really left.”

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Home is where the heart is always sounded too cheesy... My heart can be split in two but if I am wanted, THAT is my home.

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If I close my book for you, you must be pretty special.

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What kind of question is that? Of course I want to see!

I made a bearded dragon stuffed animal anyone wanna see?

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Any idea why beavers do this???

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Expectations sometimes rest at one end of two extremes. On one end, you are getting your hopes up and getting excited for something, on the other you can’t look forward to anything for fear of being let down. Of course, I advocate in favor of the former. Low expectations don’t lead anywhere. With no expectation of anything better, you will sink deeper into whatever rut you are comfortable in. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This tells us of God’s great plan for us, not that we stay where we are, but that we prosper by listening to His words. Believe in better things that are working on God’s time, not our own. Setting your expectations high is a way of trusting Him when the outcome seems inevitable.

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Many times in a normal day, I find myself disagreeing with various authority figures in my daily life. Usually I keep quiet, not wanting to confront or embarrass someone who means well. But where do we draw the line? When do we speak up instead of staying polite? Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of those who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy”. This tells us to verbally defend the weakest among us, the poor, the mute, and the needy. Today, there are many other people not mentioned here that Jesus would have us defend. Being an advocate for someone who can’t advocate for themselves is always a worthy way to use the voice God gave you.

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As humans, we rely on a lot to perform tasks in our daily lives. Technology, our job, even other people. It’s ok to rely on others for things, but we cannot become completely dependent on these worldly things. These things could never sustain us and shouldn’t replace what we know to be true. What do we know? We know that Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes that everything is meaningless without God in it. We know that Jesus says he is the way the truth and the life in John 14. All this adds up to us placing our trust in him and only him. He is the only thing we can truly depend on; everything else falls short of what we need.

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I’m sure we’ve all heard of or seen the Christian stereotype either from life or in a pop culture such as movies and books. It’s the holier-than-thou person who preaches on the street corner to all the “sinners” walking past. No one likes being stereotyped, but almost everyone is assumed to be what they are not at some point in their lives. So, what do we, as Christians, do about this stereotype? First we must realize that there is a reason for the stereotype and that though it may have been helpful to follow it at one point, let’s face it, not everyone is made for preaching on the street corner. If our goal is to show others the love of God, we don’t have to do anything special to achieve that. You don’t even need to be seen for your service. All you need to do is live your faith out in your day-to-day life by being a servant to others.

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The line between self love and pride is a thin one. When you get to a point where you truly love yourself, you must be careful to not let it turn into pride. The difference between self-love and pride is who gets the credit. If you look in the mirror, you will see that you are infinitely valuable and created by the most high God. Any talent or thing that you possess ultimately comes from Him. When you take that credit from Him and instead attribute it to yourself, that’s where pride becomes your problem. Surrounding yourself with positive, God loving people will also help you stay humble and give him the glory in all that you do.

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i knew what i wrote was real when it scared me to write it

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There is no explicit teaching in the Bible on tolerance. We have to learn from example. Jesus shows us His love through His acceptance of the least accepted people in their society—the fishermen, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes. This shows us that we must love and accept even those who society deems unworthy. Tolerance is defined simply as “to allow the existence of.” Once you are following Him, you cannot tolerate sin within yourself. Jesus loves us but calls us away from sin. His love for us will always outweigh our sin, but we should be continually striving towards His example. We must ask the Lord to help us improve spiritually and to replace our worldly, sinful habits with good habits that reflect His work in us.