Loyalty: a strong feeling of support or allegiance
There are so many things and people that we can and claim to be loyal to. Just recently, something as simple as a chicken sandwich had people professing their loyalty to certain fast food chains. Even as the beginning of football season starts, fans across the world are shouting which team they are loyal to. (Including those who just a few short years ago claimed they were loyal to Colin and decided to boycott the NFL but haven’t missed a game this season or last season) But I digress *inserts Kanye shrug* We are loyal to our family, our jobs, and our friends. Or are we?
What does being loyal really mean to you? Are you loyal to someone or something as long as it is beneficial to you? Or are you loyal as long as the fad is socially popular? Or are you that one in a few that is truly loyal, even when times are tough or when circumstances and situations change?
For example; family and friends go through things. You won’t always get along. You won’t always agree. Life will pull you in different directions. But if you love that person and are “loyal” to them, other than something so unbelievably catastrophic, can something or someone really change your loyalty? I personally will never understand how people can turn against each other with the blink of an eye. I don’t know how you can be “strong for the cause” but let a few months go by and you can’t even remember what the cause was.
I referenced earlier about the infamous chicken sandwich debate and the forgotten NFL boycott. But those are two prime examples of lackluster loyalty. There were so many people who had so much love for Popeye’s chicken sandwich that they talked down on Chick-fil-a. But what happened to those same people when their beloved Popeyes ran out of sandwiches, oh, and then discontinued them? Are they still loyal to Popeyes? Nope! They are right at Chick-fil-a eating a #3 with a lemonade sitting beside me! And where are all those beloved Kaepernick supporters, who vowed to boycott the NFL until he got a contract? They are sitting at home or at a bar watching the games every Sunday and Thursday. Heck, some of them have even fought through traffic to get to stadiums to watch the games up close. Had a best friend that you talked to all of the time? Hung out together so much that if people saw one without the other they’d question the presence of the missing friend? Where’s your loyalty when a new person comes along and offers something different or more than the first friend? Is it still there or do you let said friendship fade away? Jumping ship to a new team because your team can’t seem to win a game. (I didn’t say anything about the Orioles) That’s not loyalty!
I use those as just simple examples but they are perfect illustrations of how people throw the word loyalty around too loosely. And yes, people change. Decisions change. Information and factors change. But loyalty, and I’m talking about true LOYALTY, should never change.
I want you to ask yourself what does loyalty mean to you. Who and what are you truly loyal to? Search deep down and examine your levels of loyalty. Do they need to be adjusted? Do they need to be rearranged and prioritized?
Loyalty: a strong support for or allegiance to
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