Monday; July 23

          Have we lost our ability to say “No!”?  I realize we live in the freest time in history, but have you noticed how difficult it has become to confidently and civilly say “No”? 
          The other day I was watching a new story about a national firm that put pressure on their employees to sell more and more, so they began to try to coerce their clients to buy more and more.  While the story focused on the problem with pressure-driven sales, I began to wonder how much of it rested with our inability to make up our minds and stick with a decision.  When the vacation getaway people pester us to “upgrade” our reservations or the tele-markers call us can we just say “No, thank you.”?   When someone tries to overpower our will on political or social issues can we just say, “No, I disagree with that.” and move on?  When someone turns on the pressure to become involved in an illicit sexual relationship are we committed enough to say “No!”?  Please don’t misunderstand my point, I am not advocating that we continually argue with people until we convince them of our opinion, I am saying that we should feel confident and comfortable enough to just say “No”.  We don’t have to agree with everything everyone says to be a good person.  We don’t have to banter back and forth with people trying to get us to buy their wares.  We don’t even have to justify why we don’t want to do something – we just have to be comfortable saying “No”.
          Freedom just might come with our ability to smile and say, “No, thank you.” – and mean it.  Are we strong enough to take back control of our lives?       
          Think About It!

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