I read a tweet from an author who mentioned having to reach out to her assistant for help with several basic tasks. She concluded her assistant was basically adulting for her. It was humorous even if it wasn’t completely true.

It’s okay to reach out for help even regarding the basic stuff. This person’s assistant is doing things she’s knowledgable about and good at, which frees up her boss to do the things she can do best.

The same applies in marriages, friendships, and so on. When we partner well, we don’t have to worry about our differences, because we complement each other. We don’t have to be offended or on guard because someone does something better than us. Doing life with people who know more than we do and are better than us at some things is a good thing. We don’t have to be offended or defensive. Give and take is what doing life with others is all about. But we sometimes want to gauge and guide the give and take. We withhold some sacrifice and humility or blame someone when he or she doesn’t meet our perception or expectations of their sacrifice and humility. Our pride gets in the way. We begin to define our relationship with someone based on what they give us, and we become discontent. But no one person can satisfy everything within us or know everything that we don’t know (or don’t want to apply).

We want everyone to bring their best, but do we always bring ours? Or do we get complacent, comfortable, or selfish? When we catch ourselves either having to prove ourselves or tearing down the other person, something is wrong. And it is often something within ourselves that is awry.

You don’t need to adult on your own, and no one needs to adult for you. You were intended to do life well with others. God knew what he was doing when he created community.