Helping Another

From Sept 8, 2007

How do you help someone who doesn't want to be helped? How long do you watch them drift deeper and deeper into isolation and depression? What do you do when you try to help and they throw all their anger and bitterness into fiery darts at you? They blame all their problems on everyone but themselves. They cannot see what they are doing because they are so consumed by their emotional turmoil. Do you ever say "enough is enough" and abandon ship, and leave this person pretty much the way you found them?

Sometimes I think life was just meant to be hard. It was designed all around hurdles and obstacles, to make us wiser and stronger. But it can be hard to get through sometimes. For example, how do you deal with someone like the person described above who thinks it is the rest of the world that has problems? For me, some days are good days and some days are bad days, but I have come to learn to live with the days as they come, one at a time. I have come to understand that this is my fate-- that for some reason, this is what God wants me to deal with-- whether it be hurdle or obstacle-- and I am slowly learning to become a better and stronger person.

But what becomes of the person who is slipping into despair and doesn't want to be helped, or who denies any personal demons? Nothing-- it is out of my control. We cannot change others, and it is not our responsibility to change others. The day will come when they have to answer for themselves.

My responsibility for myself lies within myself. My responsibility toward my children is to care for their needs and to protect them the best I can, because they are not ready to take the problems of the world upon their shoulders. This I can continue to do, and the rest I have to leave with faith to God.