I just got out of the bathtub. Again, the water serves so many purposes for me. Water can be my inspiration, my cleanser of all things that are dirty both mentally, physically, and spiritually. The water can also be an oasis for me.
While in the bathtub I prayed for all of the sick people that I know. In the past month, since my Dad's death, I had two phone calls that people very close to me have suddenly and unexpectedly fallen ill. The news could not have come at a more devastating time. Nevertheless, I prayed for them anyway, but not like I prayed for them tonight. Tonight, I interceeded on their behalf (that's kinda like when you pray for someone else as if it were you). I know that they will be o.k.
Today I learned a very valuable lesson. I learned that I need to be very careful of who I allow in my world while I am not in the best emotional state. There are some people who have no filters or boundaries and who show no courtesy regarding my loss and how I am doing with the loss. Some people continue to bring me all of their emotional baggage that they are unwilling to deal with and they "try" to dump their stuff onto me. I will call these people "EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES". Emotional Vampires have no interest in your blood (like the ones from the movies) they merely want to suck the emotional life- force out of you, taking up lots of your time, getting your attention, and stalling your creativity with mindless chatter that is always about them. My advice is to avoid these people at all costs. I said all that to say, I prayed for the Emotional Vampires in my life tonight and I put them in God's hands......so that means I am done with trying to help them to my own detriment.
When I was growing up I watched my Mom try to give and help everyone at any cost. That's how she was raised. One day I asked her, "Mommy, why do we continue to help people when we can barely help ourselves?" She said, "God wants us to be givers." It took a lot of life experience and examination to realize that God does want us to be givers to others but not to the detriment of our own livelihood. I think people forget that God created the world so he does have an enormous amount of intelligence. I also think that God has given us the ability to make both wise and spiritual decisions. That's not to say that God may not ask you to give more than you would like to, but in those cases it is best to adhere to God's request because he always has our best interest at heart. In reality giving to God in service, community, taking care of the elderly and children are all types of giving. Furthermore giving builds our faith and lifts the spirits of both the giver and the receiver. How amazing is that!
So tonight all people who are suffering from illness, death, despair, job loss, divorce or even emotional vampires just do what I did tonight, and put them in God's hands being sure not to take them back out of His hands. (Smile)
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