Habits 6 & 7

I have had several disagreements with people over the years. Some of them minor and some of them major. One instance that really taught me a valuable lesson was last year when I was living with one of my best friends, Bailee. We were renting a house that her family owned and we had one other roommate named Paige. We also were in possession of a dog named Shadow because Bailee’s sister had moved to Hawaii and could not bring the dog out there for several months. Over last years Christmas break Bailee goes to Hawaii to visit her sister and Paige goes home, so I stay at our rented home most of break to take care of Shadow. When the girls return, they tell me the electric bill for the month of January is 400 dollars, and they will split 100 of that and leave me the 300 to pay by myself. I felt that this was a completely wrong of them to do, especially on Bailee’s part. I had only stayed in the house because they left me no choice but to stay and take care of Shadow. I also was barely there because I was working most of Christmas break and was only there in the early morning and late evening. I also felt that this was wrong for them to do because it was going against our lease, which stated that we would pay the bills split 3 ways always, not based on usage. Bailee saw it differently, and we disagreed for a long time on the subject and ultimately I ended up moving out and breaking the lease. While I didn’t ever agree with Bailee’s side of things, I still learned a lot from this experience. I learned that when renting a house, I need to be more active in making sure that the finances are handled properly and fairly instead of just letting someone else control that and trusting they will do what’s right. I also learned it probably is better for a friendship if you don’t live together in college.

In the physical dimension of renewal, there are several things that I need to do to sharpen my saw. I need to exercise more, eat healthier foods, and juggle my stress better. Being in college, doing these things is a challenge. What would sharpen my saw the best would be cutting sugar out of my diet and doing one active thing per day. When it comes to mental, I need to be better at planning. There are many times that I agree to too much and overbook myself and stretch myself way too thin creating no time for myself. The best way I could fix this would be to learn to say no to some things and understand that that is okay for me to do. Spiritually, I am growing every day. My walk with Jesus is something that I put conscious effort into every day, but I would really like to make it a larger part of my day. I would really like to create an hour or so in my schedule to dedicate to spending time in the Word. Emotionally and socially, I could always use some work. I am always struggling with making sure that I am in balance emotionally. I would really like to be able to dedicate more time to checking in within myself, as well as remembering to take my medicine.