Most of us have had the experience of seeing people
we love make mistakes and wishing we could stop what was happening. We don’t
want people we care about to have to deal with the difficult consequences of
unwise actions. It breaks our hearts to see them in pain.
But many of us have also discovered that there is a
process of learning, growing and maturing that must take place in life. And an
unavoidable aspect of this maturing process involves making mistakes. We cannot
learn to walk without falling down.
Hey, think about it: there were people who loved us
and they could not prevent some of the mistakes they saw us making. In a very
similar way we will not be able to prevent some of the mistakes we see people
making.
I’m not suggesting we can never help or give wise
counsel when we see people heading in a direction that will cause pain. If we
can intervene and prevent troubles, that’s great, we should do so. But
sometimes they will not be ready to hear our advice and we will have to endure
the heartache, be patient and… pray.
