October 2, 2011

HELP YOURSELF!!!

Have you ever heard the saying that God helps those who help themselves? Well, that saying is very true! People are not going to come to your rescue and aide if you are not willing to get up off your bottom and try to help yourself first. It seems in life that certain people only know you if and when they need to ask you for a favor. Help yourself, and you might be amazed at what you can do for yourself.

Certain family members only seem to know my family when they need us to do something for them. For instance, one person only knows us when she needs a place to live while she is in between apartments. We have another family member who only seems to know us when he needs a loan even though he knows that my family has been struggling financially. My own family is helping ourselves, so I wonder why others cannot help themselves. For instance, I am working two jobs to help pay my family's bills, my husband who had cancer works a full-time job, and he is thinking about getting a second job to help our family more, and our 15 year old son has been asking us when he can get a job to help out our family. Plus, my own family never asked for anyone's help for anything while my husband was ill, and no one including the two family members mentioned above even visited my husband while he was sick. Now, I am always willing to help out anyone who may be in need, but these people must be willing to help themselves also. 

I am not saying that you can never help a family member or a friend who may need help, but if the same people keep asking you for help over and over again, these people may be using you, and you may be enabling their irresponsible behavior. Sometimes, these people will even try to guilt trip you into helping them, but if you do not have the means to help then do not feel bad if you cannot provide their need or want. There comes a time in some people's lives when we need to show them a bit of "tough love". Sometimes, others need to learn to help themselves just as you may have learned to help yourself!