A Limited Amount

I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.

—Proverbs 8:12

It’s so easy to give everything we have to the first people who ask, or the people who ask the most often, or the people who are always in crisis. I like solving problems, saving the day, swooping in with the right dress or the right words or the right solution. Because of this, I’ve been known to offer the use of my wedding dress to people I meet on airplanes, to throw parties in honor of people I barely know, and to accept full emotional and psychological responsibility for people I only know from Facebook. These are not my best choices, but I’m working on it.

There is in fact a limited amount of time, caring, and energy. I’m generally the last to admit this. I prefer to believe that I am the warrior queen of unlimited relational energy, and that a full calendar is no match for my capacity and skills. Right about then, I get the flu. Or my son does. Or I start crying in the car and can’t figure out why. It’s usually because I’ve given more than I should to people who aren’t a part of my daily world. They’re not the ones who need it.