Guardrails: Making & Observing Them Helps Avoid Future Regret

This Word Picture was inspired from an excellent video series of the same title from Andy Stanley. You can find it free at guardrails.org  This piece is my take on this powerful concept. (yes, it’s another driving Word Picture!)

We know the purpose of guardrails is to keep us on the road and away from dangerous or off-limit areas. They Direct and Protect. They are one thing that keeps us from another thing. 

No one needs a guardrail, until they do.

No one needs a guardrail, until they do. Hitting one isn’t fun.  They’re designed to rattle you and get your attention if (when) you hit it. They may even cause a little damage to your vehicle. Hitting a guardrail will probably send you to a body shop, versus the hospital or morgue you would have to visit if you didn’t have one. 

All of that is obvious. But have you ever considered that roads aren’t the only place guardrails help? I grew up without a father, like many of you.  I wish I had been better taught life guardrails, financial guardrails, moral guardrails, relationship guardrails, addiction guardrails, etc. If I had personal guardrails maybe I wouldn’t have gone off the proverbial cliff.

We live in a society that resists personal guardrails because they’re too much like personal rules. We don’t like rules for ourselves or being told what to do. We’re taught the American dream is to be free to do whatever makes you feel good. Where has that gotten us? The trouble is that’s a trap that makes us go off cliffs. 

Society dares us to live life on the edge then laughs at us, blames, shames and punishes us when we crash.

We like car crashes in movies. Don’t let your life be a car wreck. Nobody plans to get caught and go to jail, or wreck their family with an affair. Who wakes up and says “today I’m going to make decisions that ruin life as I know it?” Who plans to let drugs or alcohol consume their life? Who plans to lose their house, car, or business?

Nobody plans any of those awful life-changing things, so why do they happen?  I believe a huge part is we haven’t had plans to avoid them. Your greatest regret may have been avoided if you had and observed guardrails in your life.  I say “had and observed” because just having guardrails isn’t enough if you don’t observe them. 

Would guardrails have helped you avoid your greatest regret?

It’s too late to change the past, but not too late to make a different future. Use your past to not repeat the same mistakes. Einstein’s Definition of Insanity is doing the same thing thinking you’ll get a different result, so do something different. Making and observing guardrails now will help you avoid future regrets.  

Make and observe personal guardrails to line up your conscience and actions before you veer into the danger zone. It’s a defensive mechanism to help you avoid destructive behavior or people and stay on course, especially in areas where you lack the strength to say no. Maybe you think you don’t need personal guardrails because you’ll be careful. Guardrails help you be careful. 

I’ll end with one of my favorite stories. It relates to how the right people can sometimes be guardrails, even when you least expect it.

Have you heard about the little bird caught in a flash blizzard?

This was a good bird, he helped people, took care of his family, was always trying to do the right thing, and now he’s freezing to death and feels he deserves better. He’s praying to God to help him when all of a sudden a cow takes a huge dump on him. Now this bird is mad at God, because he prayed for help, not to be crapped on and disrespected.  Soon though the bird realizes the manure was warm enough to thaw him out and save his life, so he starts to sing. A cat hears him singing and plucks him out of the manure and cleans him off.  The bird thinks he’s in tall cotton now that he was pulled from the poo and cleaned up..  

Then the cat eats him. 

What’s the moral of this story? Not everyone who craps on you is your enemy and not everyone who pulls you from that crap is your friend. If you’re in a pile of crap and happy, keep your mouth shut! 

Sometimes people disagreeing with you, telling you what to do, or butting heads with you aren’t always against you, maybe their crap is God’s way of using them like guardrails in your life?

In light of your past, where do you need to put guardrails in your life?

How will you do it?