People make bad decisions, but that doesn’t make them bad people.

Wise words, don’t you think?

However, it’s hard to step back when you observe people you love putting themselves in potentially harmful situations—situations harmful to them body, mind and soul.

How do you convince someone who doesn’t believe they are worthy of the same things we are all worthy of—love, respect and honor—that they are?

It should be our highest ideal for ourselves shouldn’t it?

Watching someone make bad choices for themselves is like watching with your hands tied behind your back; you wish so much to help…but you can’t.

You can’t, because in the end, we can only help ourselves—and in order to do this we must be aware of the things we need to change.

We are confronted with choices every day. Sometimes we get them wrong; but sometimes, we get them right.

When we get it wrong we need to examine the data. Are we getting bad data or using the data we are given incorrectly? Every choice we make is influenced by the value we place on our options. If we limit our options, we tend to limit our choices and what we believe will make us happy.

We also want our decisions to be easy; in other words, the path of least resistance.

When we make a wrong choice, sometimes it’s because we made this choice before and have learned from the past, so we can deal with it. We are prepared for the outcome. Our misery becomes familiar, but there is safety in the familiar.

The human condition involves a lot of trial and error, learning hard lessons and finding a way to manage in the greater universe. If you are engaged in trying to change the unchangeable, friend, try to remember the difficulty you are experiencing lies not so much in your forward thinking, but in your current thinking instead.

Barack Obama put it best when he said:

”What can we do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace.”

I can only change me, but I can try to be present for another and offer them grace until they see they deserve good things for themselves.

Every day is another chance to change your life, after all.

My name is Linda Pecone and I have been a freelance writer for 15 years. I live in a small town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with my husband and have written for our small town paper on and off over the years. I also raised three children in my little town. They are my greatest joys. I majored in English studies in college because reading and writing have been my passion since I learned to do them both.

 

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Assistant Ed: Jennifer Spesia/Ed: Bryonie Wise