One of the hardest things, especially for women and/or mothers, is the guilt that accompanies making choices for our own well-being, choices that feel selfish. We are taught as Christians that we ought to make decisions that are Christ-like, loving and unselfish. And we assume that means that the greatest show of love is self-sacrifice, like Jesus, an emptying out of our entire beings for the sake of others.
What we sometimes forget is that when we try so hard to be like Christ, we can easily end up trying to be Christ for other people–to be their savior instead of pointing them to the only one who can truly save them. We end up setting ourselves up to fail, trying to be to others what we were never designed to be: God.
This reflection comes from “The faithfulness of boundaries,” written by Collette Broady that appeared in the November 2013 issue of Cafe.