The Evening Thought for this episode is: Creating Healthy Boundaries When Helping Others. We will at one time or another find ourselves helping those around us, and I want to encourage those of us who do it regularly, specifically as a care giver or a counselor of some sort to create healthy boundaries to save yourself some trouble later on. Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way.

So…I have a confession for you. That is a funny way to start a podcast episode, isn’t it? But I do and I say it like that because the topic for tonight’s episode is something that I had to learn over the years and when I learned how to do it, it felt like I could do ministry more joyfully and successfully for all involved. My confession is this: I like being wanted. I like being needed. I like feeling as if I am important to someone and them depending on me for help. I like being the primary person who helps someone else and for them to recognize me for it. I speak from my ego and my pride when I start believing that I should be the center of someone’s source of help.

So I confess this to you because as a Chaplain and a Pastor, I’ve learned to pull myself away from this unhealthy behavior because ultimately I was creating bad boundaries with those who came to me for help. I like hearing someone say, “Chaps you are the only one who understands me.” I liked them saying, “No one helps me but you chaps.” Chaps, “I don’t know what I would do without you.” Have you ever had someone say this to you? Or say something like this to you?

You may already see where I am going with this, but boundaries are necessary at times when we help someone. Join me tonight in this episode and let's talk more about that.