I remember during the summer between my freshman an sophomore years in college, I worked on a pipeline construction crew, where one of my friend’s dad was the project manager. My family went on vacation, with my dad giving me the following instructions – “You are not to have anyone here in the house while we are gone.” No problem, and I readily agreed.
But a few days into their trip, my friend’s dad (who was our boss) was seriously hurt in an auto accident and my friend Dennis needed a place to stay, for a couple of nights. No problem, he could stay with me.
However, when my dad called and I told him Dennis was staying over, he went into a tirade, giving me no chance to explain. It wasn’t until he got home that I was allowed to explain what had happened, and even then, he only sort of let me off the hook.
My dad was not very flexible and I see clients all the time who have become quite rigid with their spouse – and sometimes over the silliest of things. For example, one gentleman would dress in the morning based upon what the average temperature was for that day of the year. If the average temperature was 70 degrees, he might wear his Hawaiian shirt – even if it was showing. Not much flexibility there.
Flexibility definitely has its advantages when it comes to our relationships, and we will look at that next time in Part 2.