Rescuing Others

Sometimes friends and family get in a mess and we see their pain and we want to rescue them.

For some this becomes their lifestyle. It gives them a sense of being needed and may even make them feel important. However, more often than not we are meddling in God's work.

I heard this once and don't remember where: If you fix the fix that god fixed to fix them then God will have to fix another fix.

We are where we are today because of the decisions we made yesterday.

If I have an adult child that I am constantly bailing out, she does not have to learn to be responsible.

I remember once in my 30s as a single mom, I went to my dad to pay my light bill. He told me that was the last time. I said okay.

A couple of months later I was in the same predicament and I went back to him. He said, "What did I tell you the last time?"

"But Dad, " I protested, "What about the kids?"
He said, "You should have thought about that before you put your money elsewhere."
My lights were cut off that night. The kids and I sat on the balcony and I made a game of it. The next day an agency helped me, but I never have had my lights cut off since.

My dad quit rescuing me and I was forced to grow up.

Yes, they helped me from time to time with Christmas and things but I needed to be a responsible adult about day to day expenses.

Now I have adult children and I have to make those decisions. I see how hard it was for my dad.

I see the joy when I give an unexpected gift when I know my daughter is doing the best she can with what she has. AND SHE DID NOT ASK.

Always expecting others to get you out of your messes is a sign of self-pity and perhaps a spirit of victimization that makes you feel others owe you.

Today at work someone posted the following on the Bulletin Board and I just had to share it:

His Word says in Ps.34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked unto him, and were lightened; and their faces were not ashamed. 6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
In the Dakes Bible on the side bar "looked" in vs 5 is
l. Look within is to be miserable
2.Look around is to be distracted.
3.Look expectantly to God brings blessing.
Then in the side bar "out" in vs 6 -To get men out of troubles is God's work and gives scripture references of v.6, 17, 19; 25:17;40:2, 54:7, 81:10; 107:6,13,19,28.

Are you interfering with someone's life? You may be keeping them from total dependence on God.

Pushing Through

Last night I was all about quitting. I had had it.
Now I did not want to quit my Mary Kay business, I just wanted to quit the Director Qualification part. As I began mentally to make a list of those who had let me down including family members who were supposed to love me, I became unwittingly swathed in self-pity.
Self-pity is a slippery slope.
Helen Keller once said, "Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world."
The uncanny part is the way it slips up on you. Innocently, you review the situation and begin to make a laundry list of complaints. You think you are just sizing up the situation, but actually you are cementing the problem in place.
"Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world." (Millicent Fenwick) "Round and 'round you go living life on a roulette wheel rather than taking charge of it.
If I want to quit getting what I am getting, I have to change what I am doing. I have to even change my attitude towards what I am doing.
About 2 a.m. I awoke and my head was clear and I recognized that I had been duped by self-pity again. I took responsibility for my part of the shortcomings of my goals. After all, I have no control over anyone except myself.
I turned away from that path of destruction and began making a new plan.
I am ever so grateful that His mercies are new every morning. Today I choose to make it a great day.