Nice people are essentially givers and will put their own needs aside to help someone else. Don't get me wrong: that's a very good and noble thing. However, it's a not so good thing when someone's niceness is taken advantage of and abused. And as much as I hate to admit it, that tends to be the case for nice people. Where we, as nice people, fail miserably is in not understanding that givers always attract needy people; and needy people--point blank--are not givers. In fact, needy people are award-winning receivers. They have little or no regard for the time and plans of givers because their whole world revolves around what's happening to them and how they feel about it. Since people can only do to a person what that person allows them to do, it's time to stop feeling frustrated with inconsiderate people and leverage that frustration to create change.
My own life experiences have really allowed the Holy Spirit to teach me what must be done to ensure I don't finish last simply because I'm a nice person. Making time to take inventory of my relationships is VERY important because a conscious effort must be made to clearly identify the givers as well as the needy folk. And as good as it may feel to write off the needy people, that's not the Kingdom-driven approach to take... Instead, I must choose to govern my time in such a way that more of it is invested in nurturing stronger relationships with the fellow givers in my life as opposed to those always in need. Eventually, the needy people will either adapt to not having as much access to me as before or they'll walk away because they've found another giver who's willing to invest more time into their neediness than I am.
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