Our Sanity

Sometimes, there are people in our lives that are doing things that we would consider insane. They continuously do the same thing, and as family members or good friends of these people, we try our best to have the person stop or control their behavior. When people observe our attempts, we probably appear to be the ones who are insane. One thing that I have learned over the past few months is that no matter how badly I want to change the wrong behavior of a friend or family member, they are ultimately in control. We cannot control another person, but we can control our reactions and the way that we deal with the situation. Rather than trying to change the person's somewhat insane behavior, we can choose to respond in a loving way. This doesn't mean that we allow the person to walk all over us and let them control us, but we make healthy decisions and implement healthy boundaries in these relationships. In the end, this is probably going to be more effective than trying to change the person on our own. This is definitely something that I am having to work on, and it is not an easy concept to grasp. Having control of a situation is much more appealing than having to control my own reactions and responses. But, it is definitely a process that I am working on!