We all have our comfort zones. For one person, it may be their home, their schedule, or their work, and for someone else, it may be something entirely different.
I want to challenge you to make a change and step outside your comfort zone once in a while. Do I mean you have to do something that you don’t like to do? Maybe. Will it be uncomfortable? Quite possibly. But can it cause you to have growth? Yes.
Many times, it gets comfortable to stay with only what is known. When my boys were involved in sports, there was a yearly push to collect sponsors for the team’s costs and support. There was a list of businesses to check, but you could go to the company and not know that several teammates had already approached them. I suggested using a Google form or doc so that when someone visited the company, we could mark off that it had already been checked out, and it would be more professional and less annoying. “We have never done that. I don’t like to get technology involved. This has always worked for us in the past.” It would have caused everyone to step outside their comfort zone just a bit, but made life easier. However, we stuck with the old way because of fear of change.
Sometimes a comfort zone needs change in order to help those within it grow.
When we seek to grow, a person will look for ways to challenge themselves, or they can remain stagnant. When we are confronted with uncomfortable truths, it is hard to address it and meet it with the force that should be used.
Storytime:
Once Upon a Time, a family lived in a small town. The town was closed off to outsiders, and when new people came in, it was hard to get to know them. This family had a happy outlook on life, got involved in local activities, and since they homeschooled, they spent time setting up homeschool activities. Soon, people knew who they were, but when a few people noticed some patterns of unhealthy behavior within the family, they stopped to think. “I don’t know them that well. I am likely wrong.” or they said, “If I get involved, and I am wrong, they will not be my friends anymore.”
The town ignored it. The friends turned a blind eye. People who had a “feeling” ignored it. Down the road, many years later, the stories came out that there was rampant sexual and physical abuse happening in that family. Everyone said, “I knew it!”
In court, people came forward to testify on behalf of the accused abuser. “He was always so kind to us.”, “There are two sides to every story.” and the best, “I just wonder if some of it was blown out of proportion.”
So, what does this have to do with a comfort zone?
It would have taken guts to step out of the comfort zone and risk speaking out to help stop the abuse those children suffered. If someone had come to court and said, “I saw things that made me question how he treated his family, but I had nothing to concrete until now.” it would have said to those children, “That is a safe person.”
Often, it takes what we say in our daily interaction to impact one child, one woman, and one man to find safety from abuse. They hear you say that it is not worth your freedom to have safety guards put in place to prevent educational or physical neglect, and they know you are not someone they can reach out to for help.
Have you ever heard of someone getting divorced, and your first thought or remark is about something they should have done differently? It is easy to judge from the outside when you have not walked in someone’s shoes. Stop, walk in those shoes first and then speak to them. There are rare exceptions to the rule, but most people don’t want a marriage to end.
