Have you ever considered that even if your life is full of good things that it could still be effecting you negatively? It is like the old saying, “Too much of a good thing.” We can fill our lives with too many “good things”, making us not be able to focus on any one thing.

A lack of focus can cause you to always feel unfulfilled, lacking, and aimless. There is one person who can help you to achieve the focus and purpose that you need within your days and your life. That person is Jesus Christ. He helps us to center our lives, as long as we put Him in the center of them.

This starts with spending time with Him each day, preferably starting your day with Him, because to truly begin in the right frame of mind you need to begin your day with Christ. Setting aside this valuable time daily will help you to center your life and your daily schedule allowing you to focus on what is most important. Spend time consulting God on what is most important for you to do that day. Petition Him in prayer, and wait for Him to respond to you.

He may respond in a variety of ways: through His Word, which of course will require that you spend some time reading it, through the words of someone else, or through some circumstance in your life. Be aware of this so that you can look for and recognize God’s responding to you.

Then, you will probably want to access what it is that you spend your time on, so that you can determine what is most important and what you can eliminate in order for your life to be truly rewarding, focused and centered.

You could start by making a list of the things that you do and prioritizing them. You will soon realize what is necessary and what is not, then set out to eliminate those things that are not as necessary. You can use a process of elimination by asking yourself, “Is this really contributing anything to my life?” or “Am I doing this for the right reasons?” and “Am I doing this to please others or myself?” Asking yourself these type questions will be a revealing process that can lead you to being able to eliminate things from your life.

Once you start this process and you begin spending time daily with God you will begin to see how your life goes from scattered and aimless, to centered and purposeful.

photo credit: king nikochan

So many people today, in many of their relationships believe that the other person knows that they love them, and that the other person has felt that love enough to where they no longer have to show them that love. This is a major mis-judgment, because in fact in order for most of us to feel loved that love must keep being shown, And in order to feel that love we must have the person who is to show their love for us in our presence, which is why love takes time, specifically spending time together.

This is easy for most of us when first meeting someone when a relationship is first established and when we first begin to love them, especially in romantic relationships. Think about it, when you first fall in love with someone you cannot think about anything else but that person. You eat, sleep, and breath their every good quality and seem to never be able to get enough of their presence. However, as time goes on that changes, but your love for them does not, so why do we think that we can somehow spend less time together or should spend less time together?

When it comes to love and showing our love to each other it is important that we do indeed spend time together in order to nurture, grow and maintain the relationship. The time spent on that relationship helps to build a sense of and a true feeling of commitment and trust, which is important to any relationship.

So, if you want a relationship to be well-maintained and to grow as it should be willing to commit the time that it takes to truly show them your love, and if you’re not willing to put in the time, do not expect to receive the commitment and for it to equal the love you are looking for in return.

photo credit: mandiberg

Having a system for organizing and paying your bills can be just the ticket for saving yourself a lot of headache when the due dates for your bills rolls around. The thing with bills is that they tend to come in periodically over the period of a month, the due dates may be scattered throughout the month and unless you have a system in place, you may have a hard time keeping up with it all. Not only keeping up with where you put the physical paper bill itself, but also whether or not you’ve paid the bill or the due date for when the bill is to be paid may slip by you unnoticed.

Putting a bill paying system to work for you can be so rewarding. I know you’re wondering, “Just where do I begin”? The answer is by setting aside the time to create your “system”. You will need to gather your bills, track your due dates, establish a home for your bills, as well as determine a time when you will devote to the practice of “paying” your bills, whether you sit down and manually write out checks for them or you hop on your computer and set up an online bill payment.

First, you should gather all the bills that come in over the course of a month, and determine home or a place where you will keep them together in an effort to establish your system some form of organization.

There are many options when it comes to a home for your bills. You may want to go frugal and drop them into a large manila envelope as they come in, or you may want to go out a purchase a fancy, wooden bill organizer for your desktop. Either way, the important thing is that you place the bills into their home as soon as they arrive in the mail.

Secondly, you will want to sit down and make a list of when your bills are due. You might want to jot the due dates in your planner or on your calendar or just create a list of bills you will pay at the beginning of the month and those you’ll pay at the end if this makes it easier for you.

Once this is done you can determine the time that you will set aside each month to pay your bills, this may be twice monthly or just once depending on how your bills fall and your income comes in.

You can even create a home for this as well, gathering the supplies you will need. This again, may just be your computer if you’re able to pay your bills online or it might include your checkbook, envelopes, return address labels, and stamps for getting the bills into the mail.

In the end, you will appreciate that you have taken the time to create your bill system and to organize it in a manner that will work best for you. It may take some time to create the habit of putting your bills into their home, and to establish a schedule for paying them, but you will be glad that you put forth the effort, when you avoid late fees and have everything paid on time.

Alyssa Dees Avant is a Christian author, blogger, podcaster, speaker, and business owner, when she is not speaking to audiences of young girls and their mothers, she is writing as a freelance and ghostwriter. Whether she is sharing her passion with girls on the topics of beauty, modesty, and etiquette or with their moms on time management and organizing Alyssa has a true passion for helping others. Visit her on the web at http://beautybydesignonline.com or http://organizedlifebydesign.com

            When a teen is attempting to make a decision regarding what to do in any given situation they like most humans, you would think would use logical reasoning and weight the pros and cons.  You would also think that they would think of how their decision might influence others around them such as their parents and their peers, however this is not true.  Teens on the other hand are very egocentric, or self-centered, with their thinking, they do not seem to care about how their decisions will influence others, and as a result only care about themselves, or that is how it seems. 

            Teens also think in a way which psychologists call “magical thinking” this is the “it will never happen to me” type thinking. Therefore, they do not think that anything bad can happen to them, therefore they succumb to peer pressure and as a result may make negative choices, such as choosing to drive too fast, or to drink a beer or two, or to go to far sexually with a person of the opposite sex.  They do not think that the negative consequences can follow because in their minds, that  “can never happen to them”.  So, they do not even consider the consequences such as wrecking, harm to themselves or others, or pregnancy. 

            Parents often find it difficult to deal with teens and their skewed ways of thinking.  It is often also difficult for parents to teach their teens the valuable art of saying no.  However, at such an important time in a teen’s life their parents influence is so important to combat that influence of their peers.  After all, it is still true that parents have the greatest influence on their teens over every other group of people in a teen’s life.  Therefore, parents take your role seriously and look for ways to make saying “no” easier on your teen. 

Alyssa Avant is a Christian author, speaker and founder of Beauty by Design Ministries, a ministry to girls and their moms.  You can pick up your copy of  her Special Report:  Seven Easy Tips: Encouraging Your Daughter to Say “No”.

I want my child to be independent and brave because I was just the opposite, I was nervous, scared and hiding under my momma’s skirt tail.  I didn’t get over this anytime soon either.  I didn’t become outgoing and sociable until I was half grown, at the age of ohhh 14.   I just didn’t want that for my son.  He is already about a foot taller than everyone and very mature for his age.  He usually gets along well with others and is quick to learn and pick up on something new.  This is all things I’m proud of and things I hope his teacher will recognize in him soon.

How about you? How did you deal with your child’s first day of school, ever?  Were you a brave momma or was your son or daughter more brave than you like mine?  How about you… is your child taking after you, or being completely opposite like mine?

Alyssa Avant is a Christian author, speaker and founder of Beauty By Design Ministries, a ministry to girls of all ages and their moms.  She is married and the mother of 2 children.  She enjoys blogging, cooking, and scrapbooking when she gets a chance.

You can expect to hear everyday stories and encouragement from my life and experience being a wife, mom and ministry leader. I have two children, Baker who is 3 and Lily who is an infant. I work from home and love blogging, cooking and scrapbooking. I am also active in my local church. Looking forward to contributing to this magazine.