I was recently reading Proverbs chapter 29. Each month when I get to the 29th I hear this and I always think about it.
In verse 21 it says "if you let people treat you like a doormat you will be quite forgotten in the end."
It always gives me pause when I hear that. I wonder if my kindness is getting me treated like a doormat.
It is getting me left out when others get to go and and do things. It bothers me because I've been left out of a lot of different things. I understand that I can't be included in everything, but cannot even be thought of for some of these things. And then to be circumvented in purposefully left out at times. It hurts!
At work I had situations where people from out of state that came in to our facility under the flag of a powerful sponsor from upon high get preferential treatment, got promoted after having the plum assignment while being assigned to a different position so that they can get credit for both positions in not less than a year. I've watched others benefit when they really didn't know what they were doing, they just had strong sponsorship.
I've had some of that in my life. There been two or three times where I got a position because a group of people felt that they needed my skills in that position. I've also competed for positions and gotten them. And it's interesting that the higher I go and the more experience that I have the more I understand that there is very little based on merit unless you're in the free market. Different subject, sorry.
I went through that in high school. I was way outside at high school. Nerd, science fiction reader, in the band, super shy so that if I went to events I would find somewhere with a plate of snacks and a drink and I just park there most of the night. On the wall or in a chair, that was about it.
But I've never directly felt like I was being treated like a doormat. Over the years I've transformed from the quiet shy nerd that wouldn't say anything even if you were standing on my big toe to a sometimes brash and forward manager who calls things out politely but directly. And I ask a lot of direct questions, which makes people very uncomfortable at times. Especially Chinese exchange students.
I don't know. I don't think I'm treated like a doormat, but then sometimes I think that I am not even thought of. And I wonder if not even being thought of is being treated like a doormat. I guess not, because you have to think of a doormat to put it there and rub your feet on it. If you don't even think of someone than you're less than a doormat.
Just a thought. I get a lot of reading Proverbs each day. I read whatever chapter corresponds to the day of the month that it is. I encourage you to do the same thing. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out what it's like to be treated like a doormat and explain it to me!
Let me know...
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