1. Some burdens we must carry alone. We must not be so impulsive in "venting" to others.
"[We are often encouraged] to make others feel our pain as vividly as possible, to 'make much of anything appointed.' There is weakness and the encouragement of weakness in this tendency. It is one thing to feel another's pain. We are to bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill Christ's law. He bore all our griefs, infirmities, and sorrows. But we are also told to bear our own burdens. This must mean to shoulder them bravely, to think twice before laying them onto the shoulders of others who may be more heavily laden than we are." (Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity)
"If I make much of anything appointed, magnify it secretly to myself or insidiously to others; if I let them think it 'hard,' if I look back longingly upon what used to be, and linger among the byways of memory, so that my power to help is weakened, then I know nothing of Calvary love." (Amy Carmichael, If)
2. Be silent, and wait upon the Lord.
"When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise." (King Solomon, Proverbs 10:19)
"We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and we start to do the thing, then comes something equivalent to the forty years in the wilderness [which Moses experienced before being used by God to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh's oppressive rule], as if God had ignored the whole thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged God comes back and revives the call, and we get the quaver in and say, 'Oh, who am I?' We have to learn the first great stride of God: 'I AM WHO I AM has sent me.'" (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest)
3. Don't treat relationships like a commodity. We can't give up on a relationship just because we aren't receiving from the person as much as we are giving them.
"Our lives are meant to be spent... We spend ourselves on others because Christ spent His life for us... We spend ourselves for others because Christ spent His life for them... How dare we treat people like a commodity? When you commodify someone, you assess the cost versus value -- am I getting out as much as I am putting in?... How dare we decide whether someone is worth it or not, someone whom Christ has spent His life for?"(Glenn Packiam, sermon this morning at New Life Downtown [paraphrased])
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Jesus, Acts 20:35)
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