Wednesday; December 8

Do circumstances give us the right to be jerks? I realize this may be rather straight forward and in your face, but I believe that one of the challenges of our generation is the ability to excuse our behavior based on our environment. We feel it is okay to be mean to someone if they are mean to us. We have a built-in excuse to be gruff with people if we are pressed by the pressures of meeting a deadline. If things aren’t going our way, we have the right to be mean and nasty. Okay, now if we go back and reread these examples, most of us would see the error of our way but in the midst of the moment we tend to justify nastiness by the circumstances. Patience, kindness, gentleness are all good ideas – when we have the time to pull them off. It’s almost like stress and pressure give us a free hand to turn into ogres.
The next time we about to be short with someone, let’s stop and ask ourselves if we really can justify our meanness. Do the people around us really deserve to be treated badly just because we are in a challenging situation? When we take a moment to stop and ponder it – and maybe inhale and exhale a time or two – we’ll be able to control our attitudes and our mouths a bit better. Let’s not be a jerk just because things are going our way!

Think About It!

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