Mom Talk #20: Clean Your Windshield

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for the introduction and index of the posts in this 31 Days series, click }here{

Dearest Children of Mine,

Yesterday, we talked about the word power of "Whatever", which is best wielded when you have no control over a situation.  Today, let's discuss the flip-side - when there's something you can do about your circumstances.

Take, for example, the bug that hits your windshield.  

You have two choices:  ignore the bug goo and deal with it later, or use the windshield wipers with the washer fluid right away and clean it off.  If you ignore the bug, the effort required to clean off the mess is exponentially related to how long you leave it there. This also applies to gunk in the bottom of the refrigerator, tomato sauce on the kitchen floor, and the fossilized cereal bowl under your bed.

You are my children, you live in my house ... you know I can ignore an awful lot.  But the older I get, and the more experience I have with ignoring things, the more clearly I see that dealing with things when they're fresh is vastly easier than dealing with them later.  

It's no surprise, is it, that the same principle applies relationships?  When you have issues or offenses against another person, there are two choices:  ignore (avoid, suppress... ) your feelings, or deal with them in short order.  It's so much easier to work through a single offense right away, rather than let it build up steam in your heart until you blow like a geyser.  Offenses collect other offenses like magnets, and if you let things sit in your heart on a slow boil without letting off the steam, a Big Deal Conflict becomes your solution, whether that's your intent or not ... just like the Big Deal Cleaning is necessary with the bug you left baking on the windshield since last summer.

Do yourself a big favor, make it a habit to take care of both the bugs on the windshield of life and matters of the heart in a timely fashion.  You'll be glad you did.

Next up, we'll talk about one way you can sort out matters of the heart.

for the introduction and index of the posts in this 31 Days series, click }here{

thanks for reading!