“Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you. Go to work, do your best, don’t outsmart your common sense, don’t let your praying knees get lazy, and love like crazy.”

Simple words from a great song by Lee Brice. I was listening to it in the car while putting in the many miles my son Beau has me driving to help him fall asleep. As I listened, it got me thinking. If we can follow these simple ideas, we can make a lot of people’s lives better, including our own.

Be a best friend. Be there for your friends. Drop what you are doing and help them if they need it. Check in on them and make sure they are doing OK. Sometimes just showing up for someone can mean more than you realize. Surround yourself with people who make your life better and make you a better person just by being around them. When you do that, being a best friend comes pretty easily.

Tell the truth. This one can stop a lot of arguments before they ever start. Just own up to your mistakes and tell the truth. Do not let little fibs or lies turn into something bigger than they need to be. Fess up, apologize, and move on. At the same time, forgive people when they come to you, tell the truth, and apologize. Do not hold grudges. Let it go. Life is too short.

Overuse I love you. I grew up in a house where it was always “I love you” when you leave and “I love you” when you hang up the phone. Always let the people in your life know you love them. You never know when someone might need to hear it. I say it often, and I have said it in a past article. Pat McAfee says, “Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It may change their life.”

Go to work. Find something you are passionate about and work at it. Provide and work hard for your family. It feels good to earn the life you are living, and your family will appreciate it. Hard work was instilled in me by my grandpa at an early age, and I often think about working hard and making him proud. If we all worked toward a goal and did things the right way, it could have a chain reaction that makes people’s lives better.

Do your best. I have talked about it before, but if you are going to do something, attack it. Do not half do it. Put your whole effort into it. If you fail, so what? You did your best and learned something. Get up, dust yourself off, and go at it again. Do not take shortcuts in life. Give it everything you have and be the best you can be. Then look in the mirror and smile.

Don’t outsmart your common sense. I need to work on this one myself because I tend to overthink things. If something is going well, do not think yourself out of a good thing. Trust the people you love. Trust in God, and things will turn out how they should. On the other hand, if something feels wrong, do not follow the bad road when the right choice is sitting right in front of you.

Don’t let your praying knees get lazy. Pray and have a relationship with God. It is easy to get caught up in the flow of life and forget to take time to pray. The life you are living was given to you by Him. Make the time and pray.

Love like crazy. When all else fails, and poop hits the fan, remember what matters most. You have God, and you have family. Love like crazy, and you will get through it.

Sometimes the best advice in life really is that simple.

“Let all that you do be done in love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 16:14