I have a friend, lets call him Dan. We will call him that because that’s his name. Now Dan really hates the thought of potential car dings. You know when you park next to someone and they open their door into your car and ding it? That’s a car ding. When Dan goes to a grocery store he parks miles a long ways away. If he has to park close he likes a spot near a curb. That way it lessons the chances of getting a car ding on both sides of your car. Now the kicker is when he parks really far away and next to a curb he declares that he got a really good parking spot.
Now I’ve come to appreciate Dan’s passion for avoiding the potential of a parking lot car ding. It reminds me of people. When you get close to people they have the great potential to ding you with their words or actions. It may have been an accidental ding or it could have been a ding made by a careless person. A careless comment here, a hurtful action there. Dings happen. Even though it’s a little mark it still leaves a permanent mark. Dings can even cause you to want to avoid people because of the potential damage they can cause.
I think we’d all be better off if we were more careful with our words and actions. Dings leave marks. You can’t always protect yourself from dings but you can be responsible for the dings you cause. If you ding someone be quick to ask for forgiveness. If someone dings you be quick to forgive because after all you know you’ve dinged others in the past.
Good Post. Rob, you are always careful not to ding people or to repair your damage. Thanks for being awesome like that!
That's hard to do, since many times you don't know what will cause a ding for someone else. Although it could be viewed as careless, some people are just sensitive about certain issues, and you have no way of knowing. It doesn't necessarily mean insensitivity on your part. I dinged someone the other week, or at least I think I did as a part of a group. They spoke up about it, and I'm glad they did, so now I know how not to ding them. But now I'm afraid I'll ding someone else by a "careless" comment, that I don't intend to be hurtful, but it is b/c they are sensitive about it. Which means I'm afraid to be myself, or say something I think is witty, or honestly how I feel b/c it might offend someone else. That just seems wrong, to have to monitor every little comment you make b/c you might offend someone. I guess there's a balance.
Almost like a mini-sermon in today's post. Right on brother. Good reminder and good advice.
Important reminder packaged in a memorable parable format.
This reminds me of somethng I try to do. I pick one day out of the week and on that day I try to say something nice to every person I come in contact with. Sounds dumb, but it can be really hard. There are some people that make this a diffult goal for the day, but I find it can really change my attidue towards others and brighten up someone's day. Kind like a dent remover, lol.