Let’s Play, Follow or Leader

Let’s Play, Follow or Leader

                                                  

I am sad to say that many of us play the follower in life. I am no exception to that. There was a time in my life that it was so much easier to follow than to lead. My experiences showed me the truth about following, there is no reward in standing behind someone else and no pride in using their decisions as an excuse to let go of our own beliefs and dreams.

So many young people find their hearts so in (love) and yet the love returned is damaging, and not in their interests at all. After all if you love someone wouldn’t you want what was best for them? Wouldn’t you think of their health and happiness before your own?

Shouldn’t you be willing to walk away rather than to watch them give up on their own dreams? I believe love would inspire you to lead those who are going in the wrong direction. How good will you feel later in life if you didn’t do everything you could to help those you love succeed in life, even if that means making sacrifices along the way.

The older I get the closer I pay attention to the younger generation and today it seems that the idea of being in love is actually more prevalent than true love. I find young people saying I love you after one or two dates. Understanding true love seems to be something you find in our generation. I’m sure our parents were saying the same thing and our kids will say it too their kids but it is really hard when you are close to someone who is following someone else just for the sake of saying “ I love you.”

I know love is a life lesson and can only be learned through experience and I know that some of those experiences are going to leave broken hearts and broken promises but I hope that at some point people stop and look real hard at their own situation and ask, is this person really thinking about me? Am I really thinking about me? Would I be doing the things I’m doing if I wasn’t listening to someone else? If I truly love this person isn’t in their best interest to stay strong and true to myself? Would they still love me if I was leading my own life instead of following theirs?

It reminds me of playing follow the leader in elementary school. Did you ever notice that if the leader was doing something that the others didn’t want someone else would step up and say O.K. now I am the leader and the whole group would follow the new leader leaving the first one behind to do their own thing? Sooner or later that first leader would be at the end of the line following along too.

I think love works a little like that instead of following someone else in the wrong direction try leading them in the right direction and more than likely they will be following step for step. If not maybe it wasn’t real love?