Car Dings

I have a friend, lets call him Dan.  We will call him that because that's his name.  Now Dan really hates the thought of potential car dings. You know when you park next to someone and they open their door into your car and ding it? That's a car ding.  When Dan goes to a grocery store he parks miles a long ways away.  If he has to park close he likes a spot near a curb.  That way it lessons the chances of getting a car ding on both sides of your car.  Now the kicker is when he parks really far away and next to a curb he declares that he got a really good parking spot. 

Now I've come to appreciate Dan's passion for avoiding the potential of a parking lot car ding.  It reminds me of people.  When you get close to people they have the great potential to ding you with their words or actions.  It may have been an accidental ding or it could have been a ding made by a careless person.  A careless comment here, a hurtful action there.  Dings happen. Even though it's a little mark it still leaves a permanent mark.  Dings can even cause you to want to avoid people because of the potential damage they can cause. 

I think we'd all be better off if we were more careful with our words and actions. Dings leave marks.  You can't always protect yourself from dings but you can be responsible for the dings you cause.  If you ding someone be quick to ask for forgiveness.  If someone dings you be quick to forgive because after all you know you've dinged others in the past.