My friend PF tells me that I am not responsible for other people's actions. And I know that, I really do. We are each responsible for ourselves. Only. We can encourage, we can help, we can pray, we can love...but still, people will be who they are. PF helps me see that I need to surround myself with people that do not cause me great distress, that do not pull the chains of guilt that bind my heart.
I can still love those people of course, and I can listen to them, but I need not take their problems into myself, and try to solve them.
I do not need, nor can I, make their issues greater than my own....because then I let myself become unimportant. And God says I am important, and only I can have the perfect solution for my troubles. My solutions won't fit them, and not only because they aren't me, but because, If a person doesn't have to put in any thought, any heart, any energy into finding and designing a solution, they won't implement it because it is 'too hard'.
If they did the work themselves, and didn't have it handed to them, then maybe they could see that the solution to the problem is worth the effort.
It's kind of like giving a 16 year old a new Mustang.....they want it so bad, it makes them so happy, but they won't value it, or take care of it, or even realize it's worth.
Until they have to pay for it themselves.
Just sayin. :)
