Louder Is Not Always Better.

The quiet girl.
Too shy.
Snotty.
Stuck up.
I've been labeled many things due to my quiet nature, particularly negative, and it all used to bother me. But, once you reach a certain age, you come to realize that quiet is typically better than loud any day.

People may mistake you're gentleness and quietness for being a complete snob, but is it not better to have them guess at who you are rather than you be completely loud and them know?


I would rather be labeled a snobby girl than a loud mouthed gigglish girl on any given day of the week.


I could never tell you how many times I have had adult women say, "Talk! Open up! You never speak...you're too quiet." I do not suppose that any of these women have instead thought that perhaps maybe they should be a little more quiet themselves and think more than speak.

You can never go wrong when you spend the majority of your day swimming in thought rather than exercising your tongue.

I have come to a point in my life that if I think I am fixing to bring up another human being's life that really has nothing to do with me, I tell myself to shut up and mind my own business.

I do not want to hear, "Have you heard about..." "OMG...did you know him and her...?"
No, I have not heard, and I am quite sure the person you are about to slander would not like me to know as well.

Think first, then speak.
Think:
Will this hurt someone?
Does this situation have anything to do with my life what so ever?
Will me relaying this information to anyone else better the situation or uplift another individual?

It's really easy.  Just shut up.
If you can not find another topic to discuss with your friends other than other people and their problems, perhaps you should surround yourself with people of more intelligence.

I may not run up to you and gab to you about my entire life when I see you.
I may not hug all over you and make a scene to show everyone that I have arrived.
You may never have a long and meaningful conversation with me...ever.

I purposefully choose who I expose myself to.

If I am so quiet around you, maybe it's not me after all friend.
Perhaps I think you are a loud individual who talks so much about others to me, that it would be of no surprise if my own business was retold to me next week by a complete stranger because you can't lock your lips up.

I do not speak unless I have something to say.
I choose my words and I never speak without purpose.
Even in an insult, I mean to say it exactly when I say it.

My friends are people who have better things to talk about rather than discussing other people's short comings.

So, if we don't talk...
there's your sign.
So call me a snob, call me too quiet, tell everyone else that my nose is always stuck too high in the air to lower it to your level...

I'll never tell you otherwise, because I'll probably never tell you much of anything...

For all the screw-ups

I'm sure you're there's many of you lurking everywhere, hiding behind a huge letter plastered on your chest, whatever letter it is that represents your past, your big mistake, your ultimate screw-up of all time...
And I'm here to tell you that it is time to take that letter off, give whoever put it on you the bird, and walk with your head high.
Life is too short for shame.
Too short for guilt.
Too short to beat yourself over a screw-up.
Trust me, I know you and I know how big a screw-up can really be...
brothers and sisters...
for I am the biggest screw-up I have ever met.
BUT, guess what? I'm OKAY with being a screw-up, okay with having flaws, a past, a big mistake in my rear view mirror.
If you decided not to look in your rear view mirror for one whole day, what would happen do you think?
You'd get into the other lane on the freeway and crash into another car...
you wouldn't be able to predict other things coming.
You would drive aimlessly and blindly.
I've always heard to leave the past in the past and not look back.
My friends, it's okay to look back at where you've been to help you look to where you are headed.
In fact, it's almost necessary. I want to be able to look in the rear view mirror of my life and see where I've been, see things for what they were and be warned of what to look out for as I keep driving.
If it helps, and it helped me, take a drive alone, maybe down a road you've never been before...roll down your windows, stick your head out as far as you can and scream at the top of your lungs,
"I'M A SCREW-UP! I MADE A MISTAKE! I HAVE A PAST! SUCK IT WORLD!"
Sounds immature right? Sounds crazy right? Who cares! Get crazy, get immature once in awhile. Stop looking over your shoulder, trying to act grown up all the time and perfect because people are waiting for you to slip up again.
Act like a child, let your hair down, maybe even dance with rejoice.
You are not alone, screw-up. We all are such a thing...yet only a few of us are human enough to say we are undeserving of grace, mercy, and we don't have it all together.
If you can admit that you're no good, that without Jesus you'd be a filthy piece of crap, that without grace you'd be burning and rotting in hell forever, that without the redeeming blood of Christ you would be the worst of the worst, low-down, dirty, worthless, useless, ...SCREW-UP, you've caught the idea of salvation.
Most people in the church would read that and say...What? You want me to believe I can't do anything?
Well church, that's just what I said.
Without Jesus, you are nothing.
If your church wants to try to win souls by acting like you're not a sinner and you haven't lied, cheated, and made a mess of your life before Jesus came and messed ya up even more...
good luck, but no beggar on the street wants a perfect messenger, they want someone just as dirty as them.
So take that letter off your chest, raise it like a flag to the heavens, and dance a little.

A New Year; Same Ole' Stuff.

New Years...probably one of the most interesting holidays to me. The fact that we all gather around celebrating and cheering on a new year that will contain the exact things the last year did...amuses me.
We all get out our skinny jeans and try to fit more than one leg into them.
We all set unrealistic goals...
decide that we are going to "change for the better" and become "a better me."
Fiddle sticks, people.
It's 2011, and like it or not, it will contain the same ole stuff as 2010.
You will jump off the treadmill and into your moo moo pants and lazy boy chair by march, be eating carbs and ice cream by april, and you still won't be keeping in contact with those old friends you swore you'd never forget by may.
Call me negative, call me blunt and tacky...
or call me what I am: realistic.
I am a lot of things, but I am by no means an idealist.
I do not represent things the way they ought to be, but rather the way they are already.
I am the ultimate realist.
If you tell me you want to do something stupid, I'll look at you and say, "that's stupid."
Some people call that bad manners, but I refuse to let people bounce around in imagination world their whole life, never taking responsibility for the the crap hole this world actually is.
So to all you idealist New Year's resolutionists...good luck, and you're totally overrated.
I don't need a number on a calendar to change.
All I need is to wake up one morning , eat my cheerios...and look down into the bowl and say..."welp, guess I'm going to change the world or something this year."
That will be it for me.
I make up my mind, and that's all it takes.
Me and my cheerios will start a revolution one day, mark my words.
That's all folks.