How to live a better life

1) Set aside at least 15 minutes or more to present your day to God. Pray for His direction in your life, meditate on his word and believe that your day will be a blessing.
2) When you get to work or school, give a big smile, full of joy to your friends, always conveying peace and security to those around you.
3) Be humble. Always try to learn more than you teach.
4) Speak less and listen more, he who speaks plants and he who listen harvests , "An evil man is trapped by his sinful talk, but a righteous man escapes trouble” (Prov. 12:13).
5) Find out if people next to you need help, whether they are your friends, family, etc... and if you can, help as much as possible.
6) When someone says something to you: If it’s regarding your life, speak with wisdom and balance, but if it’s regarding the lives of others, it’s better not to speak and to change the subject, thus changing the conversation without hurting the person, and teaching them, "A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret" (Prov. 11:13).
7) Have wisdom in your words, the beginning of wisdom is to seek wisdom.
8) Don’t be false. “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity” (Prov. 11:3).
9) Honesty is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Find new friends, but don’t pretend to miss their mistakes, instead try to help them improve and grow every day.
10) Be just. The righteousness of the blameless makes a straight way for them, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.
11) Discretion eliminates many hassles, problems and future regrets. Combine wisdom and discretion to speak and you will be a person who many admire.
12) Always do good. Thus eliminating the contact with evil.
13) Your conduct demonstrates who you are. Your attitude, not your words, will show your character. It’s easy to talk, but teaching by example is more difficult.
14) Turn your mistakes into a bridge for your successes. Don’t look at many mistakes you made, instead try not to make them again, thus eliminating everyday behavior that’s not good in your life.
15) Don’t look at things that you have not yet conquered, making comparisons with your friends, because that behavior will produce sadness and envy, instead look at the many things you have already conquered and will conquer with actions, because every one of us is responsible for our own defeats and failures, everything depends on our spirit.
16) Try to include a little bit of sport, physical activity or something that gives you pleasure in your daily life, thus always taking care of your health.
17) Never belittle someone because they don’t have the wisdom you do. “A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue” (Prov. 11:12).
18) Whenever you have good advice for a friend, don’t delay in giving it, doing so will help keep them in the good path. “For a lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure” (Prov. 11:14).
19) Watch your thoughts, be vigilant of them at every moment, do not let them dominate you, doing so, will help you take actions needed to keep your thoughts straight.
20) Stay away from lies because they seem good at the moment and even make you feel good, but when the truth comes, then comes shame and humiliation. “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment” (Prov. 12:19).

Learn to take advantage of the life God gave you. Living each day to be a better person and loving your neighbor.

Why give a second chance?

We make many mistakes with others, but expect others to understand when we are wrong. There are different reasons why we make mistakes: lack of wisdom, lack of discernment, lack of understanding, our age, education , etc... Well, there are many reasons, but we expect forgiveness and understanding from those who suffer the damage. Still, when someone does something wrong to us, we don’t see that the person also had many reasons for a poor behavior. We need to understand and forgive. Most of the time, when we see others make mistakes, we distance ourselves. We judge instead of helping that person whose conduct was wrong. I made many mistakes in this aspect. Too many times I had people by my side with a bad behavior and I judged them and walked away, instead of sitting with them and at least try to help. We end up not giving them a second chance.
And why should we give them a second chance? Why expect others to give us that second chance? Just imagine how many relationships are destroyed daily between husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends, simply for not to trying to help and forgive, instead of walking away...
Surely there are people who really have a difficult temper, and many times we even want to help, but they don’t accept it and sometimes become our enemy. However, it's important that we try to help because the Bible teaches us "Let us not become weary in doing good..."
Sometimes we forgive, but we don’t give that person a second chance. In other words, we forgive, but not wholeheartedly. And without realizing it, we see them in a bad light and never truly believe they can change their character. I realized that I too made mistakes in the past for different reasons and there were few people and "friends" who gave me a second chance. This made me think: What if Jesus had given up on us because of our behavior? How many times did He use someone to open our eyes but we didn’t see? How many times did He show his power through a servant, but we didn’t value that anointment? How much patience He had with us in understanding our weaknesses, our sins? How many times He looked upon us and saw our qualities, not our failures? If he had looked at our flaws, he probably would have distanced himself from us, and we wouldn’t be his servants today.

How many second chances God gave us so that we could learn humility, servitude, good character, truth and sincerity? Can you imagine if Jesus had given up on us when he saw our cold hearts, our bad behavior, our lack of knowledge? We would have never met him. And this is how we really know a person, by looking at and helping with their mistakes, their flaws and also learning their qualities. Because if we turn our backs when we see their mistakes, how can we help or give them a second chance? Isn’t that how God calls us? "Come as you are..."

I thank God for accepting me as I was: full of sins, mistakes, flaws, weaknesses, and for giving me a second chance. Through his mercy and love, our sins are erased, giving us daily the opportunity that man doesn’t.

Like David, who had a great sin, and suffered the consequences, but also achieved the mercy and forgiveness of God. He is the only man in the Bible described as having a heart according to God’s own heart.

"Man looks at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart" 1 Samuel 16:7

Everything depends on our vision

We made a lot of mistakes, because we neglected to see many things.
We worshiped many gods because we didn't know the one true God.
We lost a lot of money because we didn't know who the real devourer is.
We didn't love those by our side because we didn't know the One who died for us giving us true love.
We always lived a lie because we didn't know the truth.

We spent too much time in the dark because, we didn't see the light.
We were in many dark places, because our feet didn't know how to walk in the right direction.
We judged many people, because we didn’t know that we weren't here to judge others.
We had so many impure thoughts, because we didn't know that our thoughts must be pure.

We said so many bad things because we didn't know that from our tongue comes blessings and curses.
We made a lot of mistakes because we didn't know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
We betrayed because we didn't know that we must be faithful till our death.
We didn't forgive because we didn't know that we had to forgive 70 times 7, if necessary.
We didn't help our neighbor because we didn't know that we were supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
We didn't lift up anyone who was down, because we didn't know the One who rose us.
We didn't bring light to anyone, because we were also in the dark.
We didn’t sacrifice, because we didn't know the true sacrifice of Jesus.
We were not saints because we didn't know that we were supposed to live with Him who is sacred.
We were not servants, because we didn’t know our true Lord.
We had diseases, because we didn't know the One who carried away our diseases.

Our vision comes from God. When we know Him , the long roads become short and the darkness turns to light. We can clearly see things that we didn't see before. We turn away from sin, changing our character and behavior. We make a true change when we have an encounter with He who sacrificed on the cross...

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32)