Faith

The Taming of the Tongue

The Taming of the Tongue

My biggest pet peeve on social media is when someone says something hurtful and when someone gets hurt, they say, “It’s just Twitter.” People seem to believe that when they say something is their opinion and it’s said online, it doesn’t have the same weight as saying something hurtful in person. It’s so weird.

Words matter. No matter how they’re said or where they’re said. A lot of people think that the taming of the tongue is about censoring them. It’s the whole claim of freedom of speech. Yes, you are free to say what you want. But you are still responsible for the consequences that come from it.

The Taming of the Tongue

The Bible has many verses about being wise and guarding your heart. But one of the verses that stood out to me is Matthew 15:11. It says, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” (Matthew 15:11, NIV) I feel like we often don’t put much thought into what we say. I know sometimes I don’t. I just say things and never think of the weight behind it.

We’re caught up in a world with many different opinions. But it’s gotten to the point that we yell out our opinions louder than making sure someone is okay. This verse puts me on check. The fact that what we say can be more detrimental to us should make us stop and think. There are some things that shouldn’t be said even though we think it’s right. Especially as people who represent the Gospel to others, even something that seems minuscule to us can be hard for someone to hear. Things have consequences whether we realize it or not.

This in general is something I know I have to work on. It’s not about censoring myself but being wiser about what I say. Words hurt even if someone doesn’t call you out on it.

What are your thoughts on this?

Lifestyle

How to Save Money & Pay Off Debt

How to Save Money & Pay Off Debt

Money is great. But what’s hard is trying to balance bills and things you need and want. What a life, am I right? I’m currently trying to save and pay off bills. Adulthood is going great. However, I did buckle down and got smart about how I spend my money and pay off my bills. It’s hard but it’s not impossible. Everyone can do simple things to make things easier! Here’s how to save money & pay off debt.

Snowball Method

If you haven’t heard of the snowball method, let me explain. If you have tons of credit card bills, you pay the minimum payment on the big amounts and start paying more into the card or bill with the lowest balance. Once you pay it off, you take that say amount and begin to apply the next lowest and it goes and goes. The goal is to pay off the smaller balances and then having more room to pay off the bigger ones. This is a lifesaver to me and one of the ways I’ve stayed afloat with my debt.

Utilize Your Savings Account

I put money into my savings account every time I get paid! Your savings account is so important. I do it at the start because I know that money is out of the question and can only use what’s remaining. Never underestimate unexpected emergencies. I know far too many people who rely on their back rounding up and putting the change but actually putting more can give you a nice stash for when you need it.

Websites Are Your Friend

I’ve talked about Mint.com before and that’s because it’s amazing! This isn’t sponsored in anyway but I legit love it. You can sync up your accounts, create goals, and it tracks your spending habits and how your debt is decreasing. I see it as a game and love seeing the stats often! But it helps to keep me in check because I see it all in one place and it can be a tough pill to swallow.

Discipline is Key

Probably the hardest but at the end of the day the most important. Discipline dictates everything. You have to learn to say no to necessary expenses and commit to paying off debt. No matter how many habits you try to do, discipline will be what will help. At the start you will think it’s all great and easy, but as life happens it may get harder to not spend or pay a little more to debt. Disciplining yourself will help.

What are your money saving tips?

Style | Beauty

How to do Second Day Curls

How to do Second Day Curls

This post is sponsored by Dove Hair Care but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

I’m a huge second day hair fan. Hair always looks better by the second day. Are you the kind of person that plans your outing according to when you wash your hair? I do. The struggle with this is that you don’t want it to look gross. Thankfully I have Dove Volume and Fullness Dry Shampoo. Here’s how to do second day curls!

How to do Second Day Curls

I’ve gotten in the really bad habit of touching my bangs a lot. They are in a weird growing out stage and it’s rough. But this means my bangs start to look gross soon after washing them because I won’t stop touching them. Dry shampoo is a must! The Dove Volume and Fullness Dry Shampoo is available at Walmart and it’s super easy to find! 

How to do Second Day Curls

I’ve talked about my hair routine before and I’ve changed it up a bit since summer is coming up. I’m trying to let my hair get a break and not apply heat to it. This means less straightening and not as much blow drying. Although it’s so good for my hair, it makes me anxious because it’s out of my comfort zone. But I’m trying to embrace my natural hair and be confident in it!

How to do Second Day Curls

Touching my hair is such an issue because it makes it look greasier much faster. The Dove Volume and Fullness Dry Shampoo refreshes my hair in-between washes, removes oil all while adding volume and fullness! I love second day hair because it has already been slept in and in my case, I feel like it smooths it out better and becomes more manageable. 

What I do is leave my hair air dry after washing it and leave it be. My hair is naturally wavy but I usually wrap it in a headband to not apply heat to it. Wrapping it in a headband will help curl your hair naturally! The next day I take my hair down, spray Dove Volume and Fullness Dry Shampoo and shake my hair out. That’s it! It’s my perfect style because California is already way too warm and hair gets grosser faster and I don’t want to apply heat to it. It’s the easy second day curl!

What’s your second day hair go to routine?

Check out Dove Volume and Fullness Dry Shampoo at your nearest Walmart!

Thoughts

Living Your Life

Living Your Life

Remember when “yolo” was a thing? I still say it ironically because I am lame and think it’s funny. But it got a lot of people’s attention. “You only live once” meant people can do anything, even if it was reckless, because they only had one life to live and should be living it to the fullest. Living your life can mean so many things to different people. Some see how time that is ticking away while others plan for forevers. 

Since this year has started, a lot of things have been happening. Not just to me, but to the people I know. But it’s put so many things into perspective. How am I living my life? Am I truly enjoying it? What does it mean to really live my best life? I’m not an expert at any of this, I’m just going to be talking through some thoughts.

Living Your Life

I’m an overthinker. Whenever I’m doing something I always think of the reasoning behind it. Do I need to do it? Am I doing it because it will benefit me? There’s a lot going through my head. I talked about a twenties life crisis before. People in their twenties have a lot of weird pressures. We’re figuring out our lives still but have to act like adults. It’s a weird time.

A lot of people are striving to live their best life. It’s not a bad thing, I’ve said this before. But I’ve never been so aware of how life happens so fast. One of my favorite quotes by Marie Lu is, “You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.”

This year I’ve seen people who were the picture of health on the brink of death. Unexpected things happen that shook up my path. I want to live a good life. A life that honors God and one that I don’t take for granted. Sometimes we get so caught up in what will happen in our future that we forget to live in the now. But at the same time, that doesn’t excuse us to do reckless things because we’re trying to make the best of it.

At the end of the day it comes down to living your life well. Make sure you’re happy with it and not doing things that can hurt you. Anything can happen and we’re all going through it day by day.

What does living your life mean to you?

Movies

Is MoviePass Worth It?

Is MoviePass Worth It?

Going to the movies has gotten more expensive than before. In comes in MoviePass. MoviePass is a subscription service where you pay $9.95 and can watch a movie each day in the theater. It sounds like a dream for movie goers. But is MoviePass worth it? Here are some pros and cons from my experience. I just want to point out that I don’t hate MoviePass, I think it’s great. But there are more cons than pros.

Pros

  • For $10 a month you can see movies at the theater every day. That’s the best thing about MoviePass.
  • It pays itself off. A movie ticket is more than $10 so even if you just see one movie, you’ll be good. But obviously, go see more to make the most of it.
  • Available in a lot of theaters. I live in Southern California and majority of the theaters accept it. But double check your area!

Cons

  • You can’t reserve tickets in advance and you have to be close to the theater to reserve a ticket. I get why since there are people paying tickets through the theater so its a toss up to see if a movie is full until you’re near the theater. 
  • You can’t rewatch a movie you’ve already watched. This is new but let’s say you see Infinity War with your MoviePass, you can’t see it again even on a different day. This can be annoying if there’s no new releases that interest you.
  • If you cancel, you can’t sign up again for another 9 months.
  • The ticket verification process is just another added step where you have to take a picture of your ticket stub which can be inconvenient if you easily misplace them like me.

I actually really love the idea of MoviePass and will continue to use it. I feel like the cons are easily things you just have to get the hang of. However, not being able to rewatch a movie takes the fun out of it.

Do you use MoviePass? What are your thoughts on it?