I snagged the image from the NY Times article above. I thought it was so cool with the blood pressure reading and the two friend's hands holding flowers. Good job, Stuart Bradford!But listen to this one:
I always knew we become like the friends we spend time with. I like to tell that to my nieces and nephews. And do you know what? It may be true for our animals too.
According to Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, the role of friendship isn't well appreciated 
and that friendship may have a bigger impact on our psychological well-being ...than family relationships.
Hmm ... I find that interesting. How about you? I guess we can't pick our family ...but we can choose our friends.
In a book entitled "The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a 40-Year Friendship" by Jeffrey Zaslow, the story is told of 11 childhood friends who remained connected despite living in 8 different states.
When two of the friends learned they had breast cancer, the first people they reached out to were their girlfriends from Ames. They felt comfortable discussing anything with them.
And in a study of almost 3,000 nurses with breast cancer, they found that women without close friends were four times as likely to die from the disease as the women with 10 or more friends. What I found very interesting was that having a spouse wasn't as protective.
I don't know about you but having friends helps me in many areas of my life. When I'm stressed, I can call a friend.
I'm also thankful for my blogging friends even though I've not met many of them face to face ...YET.
Knowing that friends care and even pray for me is very comforting. I also find that I am more accountable writing a Fitness Friday post. After all, I need to practice what I preach. So, I exercise more and try to eat healthy because I often write about those topics.
So, what do you think? Do you exercise with friends? Are your friends health conscious too?
Don't forget to stop by Sandy of God Speaks Today for her Fitness Friday post. She's answering lots of questions. And Sarah of All Pain, No Gain will also be joining us each Friday to offer her advice for Fitness Friday. Don't forget, you can't have too many friends, right?
It figures that this painting was done by a Norwegian. What happened to the courageous Vikings?
When I trust in myself ...I am fearful and not very courageous.
I was sitting next to an older woman I didn't know several weeks ago in church. When we stood to sing, she sat and cried softly. So, I sat down and put my arm around her and asked if I could help. She told me that the world had become so scary to her. She was afraid even though she was a Christian. I reminded her that we didn't need to be strong and courageous in ourselves, but we need to remind ourselves of who we belong to and ...to run to Him.
"When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God whose
word I praise, in God I trust. What can mortal man do to me?" Psalm 56:3-4
Here's my thankful Thursday list:
How about you? Where do you get your courage to endure, especially when life becomes scary?
Blogger had Heart Choices listed as a possible spam blog! Can you believe it? Of course, I reviewed the Terms of Service to see if I'd inadvertently violated something. No; I hadn't!
Notice that I was unable to publish new posts until the issue was resolved and ...my blog would be deleted within 20 days unless I requested a review!
So, of course, I requested a review. But in the meantime, I was scheduled to host In Other Words Tuesdays for the first time the next day. I had written my post but had been experimenting with the Mister Linky thing. After all, I'd never done this before and I wanted to be sure it all went very smoothly.
Isn't that how things can sometimes go?
It brought back memories of the morning I was scheduled to take my driver's license test. I guess I was 16 years old. My parents weren't available and so my next door neighbor was going to drive me there. Well, wouldn't you know what we were greeted with when we were ready to leave. 
Two flat tires!
Not one, but two! Can you believe it? It was such an important day for me. I hoped to get my driver's license which at that time meant ...freedom!
Well, the two flat tires got fixed in time. Whew! And I got my driver's license. But I'll always remember that day.
And in case you're wondering ...Heart Choices is NOT a spam blog!
Blogger had a real person check it out and confirmed that it must have been one of their robot spy thing errors. So, thankfully I got back up and running just in time for hosting In Other Words Tuesdays. How's that for timing?
I had been reading Romans that morning. Here's what Romans 12:12 says:
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in
prayer."
Hmm ...maybe I just needed to put into practice what I'd read.
How about you? Have you had one of those days that you'd care to share? And has anybody else's blog been labeled a spam blog besides me?
Do you ever stop and listen to the messages you say to yourself every day?
How many lies do we tell ourselves? What we continously say to ourselves often determines how we feel.
If you keep telling yourself that you're not athletic or you're not an exerciser ...you probably will avoid most physical activities.
If you don't like the way you look ...you may avoid interacting with others.
If you believe you can't speak well ...you will avoid public speaking.
But what would happen if ...you stopped listening to the lies and started filling your head with Truth?
Truth like:
If you took Truth like this and meditated on it, would it change how you felt? Would it change how you act?
When I think on these Truths it changes my perspective.
After all, it's not about me. It's about Christ in me.
And nothing is impossible for Him.
