When I was a child and got hurt, Mom would clean the wound, put on antibiotic, and put a bandage on the wound.
When the time came to take the bandage off, I never wanted to do it. I knew it would hurt. So I would try to take it off slowly and carefully. I would still hurt a little, and would continue to hurt for as long as it took me to take off the bandage. I could prolong this process for a very long time.
Dad would say, “Just rip it off. Get it over with.” I finally tried it. It hurt! But it did not hurt for long. It certainly did not hurt for as long as it did when I slowly tried to peel it off. If there was a way to measure the acuity and length of pain for both processes, there was probably less pain with ripping it off.
In life, we will always be faced with painful situations, painful decisions. We can take action by “ripping off the bandage.” Or we can delay making a decision, delay taking action. Although the first may be more painful at the moment, the total amount of pain will probably be less than delaying.
Do you have any “bandages” that you have been slowly trying to remove? Do you have relationships that need to be addressed, or maybe ended? Do you have a job that you need to leave? Would it be better if you just “ripped off the bandage,” faced the pain, and moved on?
