Under the Gun
Ever travel down the highway and see a patrol car on the
side of the road with a radar gun pointed at you? First you look at your
speedometer and then you look in your rear view mirror to see if the patrol car
is still sitting there, or on the move. This
is just one more thing to add to the already high rate of stress in your
life. Unfortunately,
many of us use our “radar” guns as we put the lives of our family, neighbors, and co-workers on the screen of surveillance to highlight
and expose their misdeeds. Too often, we are looking for failures and
violations of expectations or standards that we somehow feel we must patrol for
exacting compliance.
It is hard enough to handle the stress and problems in our
own lives. When we attempt to run the lives of those around us, we add to our
already elevated stress level. A statement that might help is “Why do you worry
about the speck in your neighbor’s eye, when you have a board in your own eye?”
Rather than looking for the negative, try to praise the positive.