Everybody Leaks
When we started having kids I found a slight dynamic shift in our house.
Before kids, we had a dog who received a lot of our attention. Once we started having kids, the dog started to get the short end of the stick.
As a result, our dog started to act out. When he acted out, I would get mad. As you can imagine, when I got mad he only acted out even more. I was terribly frustrated. But our girls loved him so much… I felt like I needed to just stuff my feelings and deal with it.
I actually thought I hid my feelings pretty well. I thought I was doing well until that moment - while hanging out with some friends that my daughter declared, “I love our dog…but Daddy does not like him.”
Uh-oh! How the heck does she know that??
That moment was a helpful little reminder to me - people leak. I leak, and so do you. We constantly leak from the inside out. Those thoughts, feelings and opinions we carry around eventually leak out and become obvious to the people around us.
Sometimes good things leak from within us:
A generous spirit
A helpful attitude
A positive outlook
Sometimes negative things leak from within us:
A distain for certain people
A bad attitude
A critical spirit
Whatever we carry inside of us will eventually leak to those around us.
Instead of giving up time and energy attempting to stop the leak, why not do the hard work to change what is happening within us?
Leaking is inevitable. The question is not if we will leak. The question is what are the things I am leaking to the people around me?
