a difficult position
One of the strongest desires in the human heart is to be a savior.
We want to save people, to pull them from their sadness, from their despair, from their heartache.
This is not to say that we merely want to comfort them, encourage them, and listen to them.
This to say we want to lift them high through our own effort and will, to provide for them what they need
to find themselves, and to set them on the right path in the way a child places a toy train on the track.
We must fight this desire.
It does not help our hurting friends.
It deepens their dependence, their confusion, and their despondence.
True friends encourage the ones they love to be steadfast, independent, and optimistic.
Do not be pulled in the water by a drowning friend.
Throw them a float.
Whether they choose to hold on or not is unfortunately not up to you.
I have learned this the hard way.
We want to save people, to pull them from their sadness, from their despair, from their heartache.
This is not to say that we merely want to comfort them, encourage them, and listen to them.
This to say we want to lift them high through our own effort and will, to provide for them what they need
to find themselves, and to set them on the right path in the way a child places a toy train on the track.
We must fight this desire.
It does not help our hurting friends.
It deepens their dependence, their confusion, and their despondence.
True friends encourage the ones they love to be steadfast, independent, and optimistic.
Do not be pulled in the water by a drowning friend.
Throw them a float.
Whether they choose to hold on or not is unfortunately not up to you.
I have learned this the hard way.