It is always a balancing act to figure out when to step in and support someone and when to give them the space to face their challenges that life presents them with. When we love and care for someone it is painful to watch them struggle and sometimes fall. On an instinctual level, sometimes we automatically intercede. It is like we don’t sit and ponder – “Maybe I should help- oh maybe I should not interfere”, we just respond from an energetical field of “being human”! Sometimes we catch ourselves as if we are in mid-air and slow motion, and there is nothing we can do to pull back and stop ourselves. One such example is if our children are in danger! I will never forget the time my nephew Josh was driving a go-cart at a go-cart driving range and the go-cart burst into flames. We were standing behind the fence and the next thing I knew, my sister had somehow scaled the fence, which was pointed at the top, to keep intruders out. After the episode was over and Josh was safe, we realized that Patty had pierced her side and was bleeding.
Parents especially want to protect their children from negative experiences and provide them with things that will bless and enhance their life. We as parents can have a tendency to spare children from what we deem too much for them and try to circumvent bad things from harming them. We do have to discern what is appropriate for them to handle, and what is not. We have to know when there is a life lesson that they are to be challenged with and figure out how to be appropriately supportive.
This is a skillset that can be invaluable in all our relationships and interactions with friends and acquaintances. Knowing how to be in a healthy relationship is a critical part of how we engage with each other. We all need people in our lives that will show love and concern for us in good times and in bad times or should I be saying challenging times! I believe however, that “Great Spirit” allows us to experience situations, people, a nd events, that will afford us an opportunity to grow, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. There are no real mistakes in life- there are choices and lessons that can evolve into enlightenment.
