Help Others First!
"We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our
ability to endure, and we thought we would never
live through it…. You are helping us."
2 Corinthians 1: 8, 11
Paul occasionally felt overwhelmed, yet he wrote the
Corinthians to encourage them, and they helped
him by their prayers. There was mutual support.
Justin Bariso wrote about a day when he was over
whelmed and at the end of his fuse. Emerging from
his home office, he found his wife overwhelmed as
well.
Their kids were all over the place, and Justin gave into
frustration and started yelling. Later he reviewed his
own reaction and said, “I can’t do this again.” He
developed a two-word strategy: “Help first.”
A few months later, Justin and his wife again felt overwhelmed,
but this time he took a deep breath, told himself to help first, and
got his wife out of the room for a break. He set the kids up with
something to do, gave them something to eat, cleaned up a
little, and gave his wife a hug. It totally changed things.
Those two words are a
good strategy for us all.
Help first.
"By helping first, you break the cycle of misunderstanding…
You feel better about yourself, and you get others to feel
better about themselves."
Justin Bariso
