The Recommendation Series – One – Break the Restraints!

Note: This series is going to deal with recommendations on how to live life to the fullest.

Recommendation #1

The first thing I recommend you do is this: Do something absolutely crazy. I don’t care what age you are, what your status is in life, how much money you have, what neighborhood you live in, or if your first name starts with a T or a Q, you need to cut loose once in a while. I’m not talking about doing unlawful things; I mean shaking off the stress and pressures of work and life and dancing to your heart’s melody, the one that God put there.

There were many times when my kids were growing up that I must have looked like an absolute idiot to my neighbors and friends, but I really didn’t care. The things I did to make my children happy or to have a lot of fun often included some process of making me look ridiculous to some people as an adult. So what? I’ve always believed that I need to be myself, not who the world expects me to be or how they want me to act. God created me uniquely. Very uniquely, as my children would say!

I don’t know many mothers who would put on a big, brown garbage bag, stuff it full of newspapers, paint their face brown and dance around like a California raisin for their high school senior’s graduation awards ceremony, but I did. Of course I persuaded two other friends to do it with me! Then how about the time I donned a Chucky Church Mouse costume and did the polka around the lobby of our local bank with the bank president for his birthday? Yes, I did this! I’ve dressed up as a French chef and served cow tongue and eyeball soup in a local restaurant to a friend who was celebrating 25 years of employment. And…the list goes on.

Am I crazy? Is there more than one screw loose upstairs or one brick short of a full load? No. I just know that breaking out of the mold that most people put themselves in is good for me. It makes me laugh and makes others laugh, too! Kids love it and it brings you to their eye level instead of them always looking at your knees.

Break out! Do something crazy! Go skydiving (oh, I’d love to do this!), take a balloon ride (check), get on a SeaDoo and go 70 miles per hour across the big lake (been close-65!), buy a Harley (hmmm, that could be arranged!). There is so much to see and do that gets passed by if we live within the restraints of the world. Our mighty God is so big and He’s given each of us opportunity after opportunity to be what He created us to be. Stop trying to impress the world and live it up! This life, your life, was made just for you! Life’s short, time is short—don’t short-change yourself!