My dad used to talk me about when he was little the guys that got drafted on a professional sports team stayed on that team.  The free agent world was not like it is today.  Back in the day, it was very normal for a guy to finish his career with the same team he started with.  This made loyalty to your team easy.  The guy you liked stayed on the team you loved.  But then things began to change, free agency and trades became much more normal.  Do I stay rooting for the team or the guy or both?

At the same time sports was changing in our culture, many other things were changing as well.  No fault divorces showed up as a legal reality.  Business and company strategies changed and many people no longer stay with the same company.  In fact, many even began to switch careers.  I could keep going, and whether any of this is right or wrong is not the issue.  But there was an idea that was lost in all this.  It was the focus on loyalty.  People began to scram a lot more than staying in a variety of areas.  It seems as though walking away from almost anything became exponentially easier and acceptable.

Here are a few thoughts on loyalty.  Make a commitment to stay and not scram in important areas of life.  

• every person, job, city, church, team has problems.  the grass is greener where you water it, not on the other side.  watch creating enemies and idealizing
• move your focus from your frustration in the moment to the track record of the past.  far too many of us allow years of cultivated trust and value to evaporate in one moment of disagreement
• there are more stories you respect associated with loyalty than running away
• exhaust all options to make something work before throwing in the towel.  if you have not had any difficult conversations, you should not feel ready to leave
• loyalty is hard.  nothing worth doing in life is easy
• you can stay loyal without having to be in full agreement
• Of course, abuse overrides all these principles – get away and get help