Good Morning,
We have a door in our kitchen which my daughter Stephanie and I replaced last year. The door we replaced was falling off the hinges and had to be lifted up to close. The new door works great, but has not been painted yet. The rest of the room is a near white with a slight tint of blue in it. The door is still the original wood color. It stands out like a sore thumb.
Well, it did stand out like a sore thumb a few months ago. Now it has faded into part of the scenery. It is as if a new person has to come into the room and do a double-take on the door for us to realize that we have not painted it yet.
Funny how that works.
This principal also works in other areas of our lives. As we come into more frequent contact with different behaviors, we become used to them. Even behaviors which we abhor, we can slowly tolerate as we get used to them. It could be violent movies or video games. It could be a foul-mouthed coworker who offends for fun, who goes from office bully to ‘that’s just so-and-so’ and folks write it off as their normal behavior. The next new person comes in and then gets an earful of so-and-so’s mouth and they are astonished at what they hear, and in addition, that everyone around them is seemingly ‘okay’ with it.
It makes you wonder about those people who tolerate such behavior. Some may realize that it is desensitization of a bad situation, others may look at it as the people there are all like that, and to be ready for the next volley coming at them.
This is not a situation that I would like to be in, and I do want the door painted, but we have to wait for warmer weather (it was 15 degrees this morning, so painting is not looking promising for another few weeks).
So, how do we get out of this rut?
First we must make ourselves aware of what we have become desensitized to.
We then must decide if it is something that we agree with or not. And then we must be courageous and make a decision as to what to do about the situation, and then follow through.
It could be turning off the violent TV shows so your kids do not watch them. It could me stop talking to the abusive person who offends those around them or not laughing at their crude jokes. It could mean praying about what to do. It could mean a lot of things, but at least you are back in control and you are deciding what to do.
There is a lot going on in this world that is troubling, but that does not mean that we should put on blinders and forget about it. It also means that we do not have to become reactionary in how we respond to these situations, rather, just know what is going on, and make a decision for yourself.
Enjoy!
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
502-533-9336
PS: If you know others who may enjoy this message of the day, please pass this message on or invite them to receive them themselves by sending a request to me. If you wish to stop receiving these, please also let me know. Thank you!!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment