affected
Don't allow the things and people around you steal your joy or affect you in such a way that their problems and issues become yours. Guard yourself against people who would serve as de-motivators and those who would bring catipillars to eat away at your faith.
It is so easy to fall into either one or both of these categories:
1. We allow negative people to affect and alter the way we think and live - their issues and negativity and lack of faith becomes ours AND/OR
2. We can become self-righteous and judgemental in looking down on that person going through a difficult time thinking why they just can't "snap out of it" or "get with the program."
The key is balance. We are to be compassionate and gentle to those afflicted but understand at the same that we are not their savior. We can love without submerging ourselves and bearing more than what is ours to bear.
Remembering who your God is and who you are will help you greatly as you minister to those in need and for those caught in a vicous cyle of depression. But we need to couple this with compassion and kindness by remembering the depths to which God's mercy, grace and patience has rescued our souls in our very moment of need. One day we may be all "good" and the next, there is no telling what life can bring. Regardless of what we may face, God says, "I love you" and His love will outweigh and eclipse completely any affliction our soul may bear.
His love is sufficient. It is enough. Oh how He loves me, and with that same love, I choose to love others.
It is so easy to fall into either one or both of these categories:
1. We allow negative people to affect and alter the way we think and live - their issues and negativity and lack of faith becomes ours AND/OR
2. We can become self-righteous and judgemental in looking down on that person going through a difficult time thinking why they just can't "snap out of it" or "get with the program."
The key is balance. We are to be compassionate and gentle to those afflicted but understand at the same that we are not their savior. We can love without submerging ourselves and bearing more than what is ours to bear.
Remembering who your God is and who you are will help you greatly as you minister to those in need and for those caught in a vicous cyle of depression. But we need to couple this with compassion and kindness by remembering the depths to which God's mercy, grace and patience has rescued our souls in our very moment of need. One day we may be all "good" and the next, there is no telling what life can bring. Regardless of what we may face, God says, "I love you" and His love will outweigh and eclipse completely any affliction our soul may bear.
His love is sufficient. It is enough. Oh how He loves me, and with that same love, I choose to love others.
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