Challenging My Norm

You ever get irritable?  Seemingly for no reason, you get cranky.  You know of a time frame when the “jerk mode” started. But what was it really that set you off?

A specific conversation?

A certain attitude of those around you?

Surely its from an outside source, right?

Wrong.

Apparently I get a little rattled when plans don’t go my way.

Say, for example, you have your morning planned out.  Structured time planning has occurred early, allowing you to follow a simple list of tasks to complete to obtain your daily objective.  In short, you laid out your plans for the day.

Then something happens.  People interact with you and alter your plans.  At first, you plan to stay on task.  Just need to be a little flexible.  Then another one or two appears and have completely different plans for you.  They have problems they need you to solve too.

Then you have personal obligations that arise.  You’ve got a dinner to attend.

Then yet another person’s lack of planning has now created a high-pressure emergency that you’ve just got to handle.

Then you get pissed, take your daily planner pages, wad them up into a tiny little ball, dispose of them properly and quietly blow off steam like a rolling tea kettle.

Some of this happened to me today.  I really had to make myself stop and listen to the garbage that appeared in my head.

• The nerve of some people!  Don’t they know I am busy?
• Why can’t you plan your day better than this?
• Can’t you handle one simple task on your own?

How harsh these statements can be to those who are important to you.  They can be said to those you love as well as those you are helping to grow in their own lives.  No matter who you pop off too, it can’t hurt.

Sometimes your actions convey the same messages.  Your scornful looks can carry an even more painful message.

Here’s my lesson for today:  “Don’t whine because you don’t get your way.  Someone needs you.  You might just encounter an angel that God has sent your way, or you just might be that angel someone else has been praying for.”

Don’t let “You” get in the way…