Let People Be People
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -Romans. 3:23
I enjoy reading and listening to podcasts. I can’t remember if I read this in her book or heard it on her podcast, but Jennie Allen used this phrase and I’ve been thinking about it for weeks. It is this, “Let people be people.”
This phrase, “Let people be people,” has given me a lot of freedom lately. I can often find myself frustrated with others. Whether I feel hurt, offended, left out, disappointed, angry, sad, the list goes on - my emotions can often be driven by people and their behavior. However, letting the actions or behavior of other people rule my emotions is a dangerous place to be.
How do I receive freedom from that trap? I let people be people. What does that look like? To me that looks like knowing in every relationship I have, I WILL be hurt by the other person. It’s not if, it’s when. It looks like taking a moment to check my expectations of others. Are they realistic and did I take the time to communicate them? But most importantly, it looks like reminding myself of the reality of mankind, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). People are sinners! They will cause us to feel hurt, disappointed, angry, etc. Even when we communicate our expectations, they can still fail to meet them! Even when people have the best intentions, they can still hurt us!
There is freedom in letting people be people because that is God’s way. People were never supposed to be our number one priority. God always was. He designed us to have Himself first in our hearts. No wonder we feel hurt & frustrated, we aren’t putting first things first! In light of God’s wisdom we see people are faulty and they can’t be our joy or satisfaction. Not only that, when we love God first, we can love others better because we aren’t expecting them to be God to us.
When I feel emotions rising within me, I’ve been working on pausing, taking a deep breath and reminding myself “Let people be people Eunice.” In that I’ve found freedom from bitterness, frustration, and more. I hope you can too!