Yesterday, I prayed a prayer I have prayed before.
"Lord help me to not try to do what even you cannot do: Change people without their permission."
What does this mean? God has blessed us humans with the power of choice. We can choose life or death. We can choose to change for the better or stay the way we are.
But how often do we, when dealing with people, try to change them? We use a variety of techniques that go to the extreme of arguing, manipulation, and even control as we try to persuade them to do what we want them to do. Yet, no one will change for the better, for the right reasons, unless they do so of their own free will.
Even God will not force people to change. He presents us with the benefits of changing, but He will not force us to do what we do not want to do.
We should take a hands-off approach when dealing with people if we discern that they are resisting change for the better. Until they give God permission to help them to change, all of our techniques will be futile and only create more chaos.
We should each work on changing ourselves and let others make their own choices. This is a liberating way to live!
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