Without rules, our world would quickly fade into chaos. By the time we reach adulthood the habit of obedience to the rules is ingrained in most of us, and that is not a bad thing. What can be very bad though is when blind obedience overrides rationality and good sense. Examples are endless but here is one. If you were sitting quietly under a “no talking” sign in your local library and saw a fire starting, would you whisper a warning or scream it out?

There is such a fine line to walk between sense and senselessness it can be very hard to know what to do. Sometimes obedience to a set pattern of rules can lead to disaster, and sometimes not. Every situation requiring a decision on whether or not to break the rules is not going to be the same. Therefore, habits of obedience should not be set in stone either. Know all the rules and follow them as closely as you can, but not to the point where your decisions override rational thought.

If something feels wrong, it probably is, and if you let a habit of obedience override your rationality and good sense, it almost never ends well. Would you let a “stay off the grass” sign keep you from taking a short cut to reach a person in dire need? Life doesn’t always allow us to take the long way around regardless of a set of rules. Keeping your mind and option’s open will help ensure you’ll know what’s wrong or right when you need to know, and what to do about it.

If your heart and your head both agree, something isn’t right, listen to them! Save yourself the agony of knowing you could have done something to help a bad situation and didn’t because it went against your habit of obedience. While teaching our children the value of following the rules we must also teach them the necessity of thinking for themselves. A simple but very effective rule to teach would be if it feels right do it, and if it doesn’t, then don’t. Always let your conscience and your heart be your guide, and you won’t be sorry.

It may sound harsh, but when you let the ingrained habit of obedience override rational thought or what you know to be right and allow a bad situation to get worse, who’s at fault?