Being right can cost you

“Being right warms no beds; truth is a cold companion.”

Okay, let us all agree that you’re right; you-are-right. You are absolutely right about him, her, them, or it. That is the way it is. You’re one hundred percent correct and were anyone else to walk in the door right now they would surely agree with you. You’re right, and no power on earth will ever take that away from you; got it?

I’ll be the first one to admit that it feels good to be right (I am right about that). However, once your and my moments of delicious rightness have passed we have the challenge of, “What do we do with the isolation and alienation we feel from him, her, them, or it?”

Do we leave and walk away triumphantly, but alone? Or do we take a chance to build new relationships? Do we hold fast to our rightness, or is there another way?

The good news is that whatever occurred between you and him, her, them, or it, it is all in the past; the future is unwritten and you are your own best-selling author. The bad news is that if you and I do not seek ways to warm up relationships that have grown frosty, we will go to bed with truth as a cold companion.

Just reach out and touch someone; reach out and re-open broken lines of communication; and do what it takes to restart. You may have to find a way to apologize or ask for forgiveness--even if you were right. It is worth swallowing a little pride to warm up a cold relationship.

Your choice is really about being alone or being alive.

If the person you are being right about is a spouse or child, stop whatever you have been doing (it hasn’t worked, has it?), and get to a relationship professional: a counselor, a pastor, or another person with whom you feel safe.

We can either be right or we can be happy, rarely both. Our true challenge is what do we want to be right about tomorrow?

Suggests: Paul@RelationshipLiteracy.com