This Devotional Is Part Of A Special Continuing Series Related To Dependency And Co-dependency Issues. Rules Of Godly Common Sense Apply.

About abandoning your routine to respond to or do something for someone else…

Luke 10:41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, (NIV)

On the surface, dropping what you are doing to help another person certainly appears to be a caring and compassionate thing to do. However, continually abandoning what you are doing to help another can send a number of wrong messages to a person needing help. For example, in our life, there is a big difference between a real emergency and a "fake" emergency. Persons with a dependency/co-dependency issue can have the tendency to respond to occurrences in life as if many occurrences are real emergencies when there is no real emergency. Whether a circumstance is a real emergency or not, we are to maintain our calm, and as much as possible, let others handle their own issues. By responding to a circumstance as a real emergency when there is no emergency sends an unhelpful message to the person with an issue. The unhelpful message sent is "you do not need to help yourself, you do not have the power to help yourself, and you are not able to help yourself." The helpful and empowering message from Christ is "you do need to help yourself, you do have the power to help yourself, and you are able to help yourself."