In the private security industry, many security professionals despise the title "security guard." Many are quick to correct someone and assert themselves a Security Officer, but in reality, that is what you are. You are securing something or someone by guarding it. I get it, the term Security Officer is seen as a more professional term, just as in the same sense, Executive Protection Agent/Officer is preferred over "Bodyguard." There's that guard word again. But what does guard mean? I want to change the perspective of how one may see the term "guard." Gaurd comes from the Hebrew word Shamar, which means to keep, watch, and preserve. In the Hebrew language, each letter has a pictographic message. The word shamar consists of three Hebrew letters, the shin, שָׁ, the mem מַ, and the resh ר; creating the Hebrew word שָׁמַר. The letter shin is a picture of teeth, which means to destroy or consume, mem which is a picture of water meaning, chaos or mighty, and lastly, the resh, which is a picture of a head meaning, first, beginning, and most important. When you put these three letters together, the message you get is, "destroy chaos in the beginning." One of the first things we do when we get an inquiry about a new security assignment, is get an understanding of why we are needed. From there we start planning. We mitigate or figure out how to prevent what is happening and the possibility of something happening, so inevitably, what are we doing? Trying to "destroy chaos from the beginning." Once we mitigate, we prepare, then have a response and recovery plan(mitigate/prevent, prepare, respond, and recover, the four elements of a successful security plan). Being a guard is something much more than just physically being there. You ask any seasoned Executive Protection Professional, such as Elijah Shaw, Byron Rodgers, Kevin Ghee, Mark "Six" James, and Shamir "Shadow" Bolivar. They will tell you it takes more than physicality to be a successful protector. Do you truly have what it takes internally to get the job done? To destroy chaos in the beginning, you must first deal with yourself. You must destroy the things within you causing chaos, hence the word shalom or peace, which pictographic meaning means to destroy the things learned that are secured to chaos. So the question is, what are you doing to keep guard over yourself? Your everyday lifestyle from what you eat, drink, listen to, watch, the people you hang around, etc. Is it allowing you to live a life to be the best protector? The best version of yourself that you can be? How are you dealing with adversities in your own life? How can one live a life to destroy the adversities in someone else's life, but not love him or herself enough to deal with their own? What you are doing to destroy the chaos in your own life? What are you doing to destroy those things before they even begin to produce? Are you taking heed to those warnings? Are you Shamar-ing ? Are you truly a destroyer of chaos? I leave you with these two things,
* 'And why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but are not aware of the plank in your own eye?” “Or how are you able to say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ not seeing the plank in your own eye? Hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.' Luke 6:41-42, Ts2009 https://chop.bible.com/bible/316/LUK.6.41-42
* Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23, NIV
As Always - Shalom, peace be upon.
Gabriel, The Watchman.
Over.
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