Friday, December 11

The Elephant Made Me Do It



Whew… it has been some time since my last real post - my bad readers. Life has been interesting lately – to say the least. The so-called “interesting” aspects have led to my non-posting. Not trying to make excuses, I’m being totally honest. If I had posted some of my hot topics, they would’ve been not so “PC”. So, in order to keep peace among the nations my anti-PC posts have remained swirling around in my head.

After tossing out my latest ideas for blog posts I started thinking about a recent series at church called “The Fine Family”. In a nutshell, the series was preaching on the “elephants” in family life that causes everyone involved to walk on eggshells. The series was geared towards family, but was very helpful in all situations that life seems to pitch our way.

You know what I’m talking about - the overwhelming feeling of tension that is always there, but no one talks about… yep, the elephant is in the house! I totally understand the ripple effect that elephants in the family and or at the workplace can cause. Lately, Brandon and I have felt the “elephant’s” affects on us. The unbelievable tension causes silly arguments that should never happen.

Here are my conclusions:
- Everyone has their own elephants. Some people tend to deal with their elephants differently than others and some ignore their elephants all together. The only problem with these elephants is that the more you ignore your mini elephant, the larger he gets! By pretending he isn’t there, he starts to grow!
- Everyone pretends that other peoples’ elephants are not that big. What I’m saying is that it is easy to think that your family or friends issues they are dealing with are not as major as you would like to accept. In some cases this is true, but sometimes it isn’t. As you learn to deal with your elephants, learn to deal with other peoples’ elephants too.
- Other peoples’ elephants can absolutely crush you. It happens all the time. When the person pretends that they have no elephant… BOOM… you are crushed. Trust me, elephants are heavy… I know, I’m a Bama fan!

After all those conclusions I still have these questions:
- If your elephants cause others to tread lightly around you how do you know?
- What can you do to fix them?
- Are some “elephants” not worth fixing?
- What if you are not sure that it is actually an “elephant”, then what do you do? Draw attention to the situation or problem? Or let it go?
- When is it time to step in and say something? Is there ever a right time?
- Who should say something about the “elephant”?
- How can you tell someone that his or her “elephant” is affecting your life?

These elephants are not a welcome site in any home – Bama fans or not! By creating unnecessary tension in your lives, the lives of your family members and friends, you are hurting the people who care about you most.

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