Beech Tree News Network

Advice has been defined as the guidance or recommendations offered with regard to sensible future action. In our society, advice is freely handed out, generally in casual conversation without much prior thought. Like most, I’ve both given and gotten advice – some bad and some good.

Wondering about the advice others have received, I asked friends and family the following: “People give one another advice all the time. What was the best/worst advice you have been given?” The replies I received are listed below:

·        

Have kids. It will be fun.

·        

The best advice I was ever given was not to treat my daughter like she was sick or different, but to treat her like she was normal.

·        

Best advice: follow Jesus.

·        

The best advice I was ever given was from a series of discussions surrounding the nature of relationships. Balance in feeling and thought is essential to perspective and emotional wellbeing; so, to be balanced, one must respond both to the head and to the heart. The worst advice I was ever given was that the opinions of others do not matter.

·        

Don’t let others tell you how to raise your kids. Do whatever works best for you and your family.

·        

Take each day one day at a time.

·        

Best advice: a person cannot control what other people do. You can only control how you react to them. It is a choice. Worst advice: My mother saying I could trust my sister.

·        

The best advice I was given about marriage: Never go to bed mad. Worst advice: Stop caring so much (about my job). It was the worst because it’s my personality to care about my job. I felt I wasn’t giving it 100%, and it made me feel bad about myself.

·        

Words to live by change as we age, I think. Right now, I’m thinking on kindness. In Micah 6:8, we are instructed to: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. Good advice!

·        

My daddy always said don’t give up your day job. I have always thought this was a good rule.

·        

Probably the best advice that I was given would be not to worry so much, but live more for today. Probably the worst advice that I was ever given was to quit college and go to work.

·        

The best piece of advice I was given was to travel the world and experience other cultures – to immerse myself in new things. I think that piece of advice has made me a more understanding, sympathetic, empathetic, and accepting person because I’ve met people so different from me.

·        

The worst advice I was ever given was to quit high school; this was during my junior year, and I did not take that poor advice. The best advice I was ever given was to choose thoughtfully my path in life. I have tried to do this, but sometimes things happen.

·        

The best advice I was ever given was my Dad advising me to find a church I like and to get involved. The worst advice I was given was to say what I think.

·        

The best advice I’ve gotten is don’t let anyone go home feeling bad about themselves because of me. The worst advice given was when a friend told me that if she was mad, I should be mad as well.

·        

The best advice was given by my Dad: “Don’t be timid.”

·        

Some good advice I’ve read is pray more than you worry. Some bad advice involved someone attempting to tell me whom I should vote for in the coming election.

Finally, Conway Twitty said, “Listen to advice, but follow your heart,” and Johnny Gargano said, “…I say just be a good person first and foremost.” John C. Maxwell advised, “Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/advice-quotes). Most people who give advice are well-meaning. I believe the key to sifting through advice is to let it help us find our own paths.