The cost of living is so much a part of our everyday lives. We are always shopping for the very best deal. Most are careful not to make a wrong decision by being too cheap. After all, we do want our purchase to last. Many times we will even try it out before we make our final decisions. Test driving the cars, watching for the thirty to sixty-day free trial offers before commitments are made. Searching the world wide web for surveys, blogs, and forums with information to help us make an informed decision. After all, no one really wants to purchase a lemon, right? If only so much care, research, and thought went into all the decisions we make in our lives. Decisions that not only affect our lives but the lives of others in and or around our lives, people that we claim to love and cherish. There does not have to be one cent spent yet our decision can be life-changing. We often hastily make those decisions giving very little thought and absolutely no research into the consequences of it. It may seem trivial in the heat of the moment. I wonder if you looked at the possibilities, the consequences, and even the life-changing effect on others that hastily made the decision would make if you would still make it? Perhaps you got angry at a child or that child’s spouse and told one or the other maybe even both of them they were no longer welcome at your home. That decision seems simple enough but is it really? Was the deed so serious that you are willing to spend the rest of your life not having your child, or your child’s family a part of your life? What about your grandchildren? Are they all banned from your home as well? They may as well be. A child cannot feel right about visiting a grandparent that does not like their parents or want their parents coming over too. Was it worth it in the long run? Or even the short run for that matter. This is one of many examples I could list with the same or worse end results. Before you say or do something to break up your family or make something you felt was bad even worse, think about being the better person. Think about what means more to you. It may not seem important to you now, you may even be thankful for the break you think you are getting. I will go so far as to promise you in the end you will wish on all that you love that you had never missed a day of having them in your life at any level. When you go bargain shopping for good deals don’t forget to shop for all the other things crucial to your family’s lasting success. Shop for love, patience, understanding, compassion, wisdom, and forgiveness. In the end, when you have no one else, you will have a family. Or will you?
Simply my thoughts
Dean Butler
