"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Proverbs 4:23

Even if you aren't religious, please realize the amount of truth in this statement. Every single thing you do in this world should come straight from your heart, and benefit you positively in the long run. If it doesn't, you're wasting your time.

You wouldn't buy a car if you knew that it would break down within three months and leave you without transportation, would you? So why do we give our hearts to people that we know aren't going to help us grow into the best version of ourselves?

Your life has value. Your thoughts are important. You are a valued person. Do not waste your time on someone who makes you feel less than what you know you are. Do not continue trying to make someone happy that effortlessly makes you hurt when you are with them. Their words should lift and empower you to be the best you can be, not sting and linger, making you question yourself.

It can be hard to tell how someone is going to impact your life when you first meet them. It can become harder when that person knows how to manipulate you and have you believe their every word. They begin out your new relationship by making you feel over the moon elated, and slowly begin to incorporate their manipulative behavior. Soon enough, the joy you feel from this person is completely exchanged with stress, but they have buried deep a sense of hope in your heart. Hope that one day, they will wake up and be the same sweet and loving person they were in the beginning. And they will behave that way, eventually. But that time will only come when they feel that they are losing their grasp on you. They can feel you unwrapping yourself from around their fingers, and know that to reel you in again, they have to treat you like they did long ago.

You do not deserve this toxicity. You deserve someone who will treat you like they do in the beginning of a relationship the entire way through until the end. You deserve to be spoken to kindly and have someone in your life who has genuine intentions from the start. It can be hard to tell whose intentions are pure and even harder to leave once you're deep in emotions but realize that this person is having a negative impact on your life.

You deserve the absolute best. It may be a cliché saying, but clichés' have reason behind them. Do not settle for less. Do not allow a toxic person to continually suck the happiness out of your life. And finally, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Please don't forget that.