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

About letting others be responsible for themselves…

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. (NIV)

In a Christian sense, we may want to take over a person's life and make decisions for the person. Making decisions for someone is warranted in raising a child or in helping someone who cannot help himself or herself. In this instance, we should encourage the person to make as many decisions as possible. However, in nearly all other instances, when we take away a person's ability to be responsible, we make the person dependent upon us and we put a roadblock in the person's path to Christ. Each of us needs to come to Christ and live for Him on our own. When we make ourselves responsible for someone's feelings, thinking, actions, choices, wants, needs, and well-being or lack of well-being, we end up demeaning the person. Consequently, we prevent a person from being who God wants him or her to be by our taking over his or her life as we try to get the person to be who we want the person to be. As difficult as it is, with few exceptions, we must let each person succeed or fail on their own. This does not mean we do not warn, admonish, give wisdom, prevent harm, and show love. What we must always do is preserve each person's dignity and personhood before Christ so each person will know Christ for himself or herself.