Sometimes relationships are tricky things. You think you are helping someone and you are actually enabling them. Or you rely on someone overly much, when you should be relying on yourself, or yourself and God.
Sometimes the loving thing to do is to let the person you love make their own mistakes and learn from them themselves. Other times, if they ask, you can offer your advice for what it is worth.
At no time should you ever try to be their personal Holy Spirit. You can't guide them to a safe haven. You can't micromanage their lives. You can only pray for them, not manipulative prayers, but prayers for their well being and safety and wholeness.
In the end, God is God for a reason. He can see the whole picture from beginning to the end. He knows the hidden motives of the heart. He can be trusted with your loved one, if you leave him or her in His hands.
It is a good thing we are finite and human. We sometimes make poor decisions ourselves and are not qualified to be divine. We can participate in the divine nature, but that is by becoming like Christ and is a process that takes discipline and perseverance. We never arrive, but are always journeying or sojourning, as strangers in a strange land.
I know enough about emotions and persuasive words to be a master manipulator. I can be disarming and charming, but I must choose not to use my powers to control others. I must break the pattern in old relationships and not fall into it with new ones. I must accept people as they are and recognize it is not my role to alter them one iota.
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