I have taken a break from posting lately. I have posted a blog almost weekly for ten years. The last blog I posted was December 16. While I know that I do best when I stick to a schedule, for a couple of reasons, my weekly posting schedule became too much recently. The main reason for this is that my very able assistant, Gina, is no longer helping me post the blog to the same degree she had been doing. Oh, how I miss Gina’s help!

The holidays also affected my schedule. Once I was not on a weekly posting schedule, it was easy to let the days and weeks pass without posting. (Isn’t that the way it goes?!) Now that I am posting again, I need to determine a frequency that works best for me, and my readers. I will appreciate your thoughts about this.

I was having a conversation with a friend recently. She told me that she no longer shops in a local store because of their stance on some social issues with which she disagrees. As I thought about this, I realized that my friend’s values and the values of the owners of the store are in conflict.

Some businesses are very bold about living their values. Two well known businesses that live their values are Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, both closed on Sundays for religious reasons. You may not agree with the businesses’ decision on this, but you likely can appreciate the fact that they are living their values.

In my opinion, my friend’s decision is the right decision for her to make if she disagrees with the values of the store. Taking our business elsewhere, walking with our feet and no longer financially supporting a business establishment whose actions we disagree with, allows us to live our values. The store is also living its values when it chooses to not support or promote a cause it disagrees with.

We should be careful when we choose to live our values out loud. It is too easy for us to tromp over someone else’s values while trying to live ours.

Is there a difference in accepting, supporting, and promoting in the area of values? I think so. While I may accept a social value and the right of others to live that value, if I disagree with it, I do not need to promote it. The greater challenge is in the area of supporting a value with which we disagree.

What is the difference in supporting and promoting? Supporting may include not discriminating in advertising, while promoting can include advertising for that cause.

As with other things, the ends (in this case, accepting and promoting) are not usually the challenge. The challenge is in the messy middle.