Free To Be Me | Ericaism

• Recognize when a situation cannot be changed and choose to move forward.
• Establish boundaries to care for others without taking on their problems.
• Empower people to choose Jesus and their own healing, rather than trying to control their lives.

Learning To Let Things Go

In this “Ericaism” on Get Up! Mornings With Erica Campbell, Erica admits she has been forced to be more fully herself lately. She explains that she has a strong ability to process hard things without pretending they did not happen. She feels what she feels, then decides how much space a situation will take up in her mind. Often, she tells herself, “It is what it is,” especially when she cannot change it. After that, she chooses to move forward instead of staying stuck.

Caring Without Carrying Everyone

Erica says this mindset has become crucial because many people place heavy demands on her time and heart. Mentors, mentees, church members, and loved ones often call with the same problems over and over. At first, she can be present, listen, and help. However, there comes a point when a chapter ends and a cutoff is healthy. When she pulls back, some may read it as mean or uncaring. Even so, Erica reminds listeners that she has “learned to care without carrying.” She wants to obey God, but she refuses to play God in someone else’s life.

Some People Want Comfort, Not Healing

Erica notes that some people like having someone they can call every day to cry about the same issues. They talk about problems repeatedly but have no real intention of healing or changing. As a believer, Erica is “super Jesusy” and truly believes God will heal, bring her through, and bring her out. She also knows God gives everyone the option to choose Him. Therefore, if God allows people to choose, others also have the right to choose themselves and step back. That decision does not automatically make them selfish or cruel.

Your Job Is To Point People To Jesus

As a first lady, Erica has sat in some intense meetings recently. In those rooms, she realized she can both care and not carry at the same time. She will love, pray, and talk, but then she will let the problem stay with the person it belongs to. Her assignment is to lead people spiritually and point them to Jesus. She will stretch herself to give as much as she can. After that, she leaves the rest in their hands and God’s hands. She says this same truth applies to parents of grown children too. You can care deeply, but you cannot carry adults for the rest of your life.

Free Yourself To Be Yourself

Erica urges listeners to learn how to release people and let go. When people want to leave your life, let them. Life may bring them back or it may not, and both outcomes are okay. Not everyone who leaves “will need you again,” and that does not lessen your value. The key is to free yourself to be yourself and to become all that God has called you to be. Others can keep their opinions, but they do not have to shape your identity. Erica closes by encouraging everyone to stop whining over things they cannot control and to live with the freedom God already gave them.

Free To Be Me: Erica Campbell’s Ericaism On Caring Without Carrying Everyone’s Problems was originally published on getuperica.com