Do you have toxic people in your life? The word toxic means having the effect of a poison or being poisonous. Poison is a substance with the ability to destroy life or impair health and is harmful to your well-being. Toxic people are those who have the effect of a poison on you because they destroy your life, impair your health, and are harmful to your well-being.

When it comes to taking care of yourself so you can survive and thrive, you must protect yourself from toxic people. Toxic people include narcissists, liars, manipulative and/or abusive people, emotional blackmailers, the addicted, and blamers. These people have the ability to cause you to doubt yourself, ignore your own needs, make decisions that aren’t in your best interest, give in to their manipulative demands, believe their perceptions over yours, and even to make you sick emotionally, physically, and spiritually. You can protect yourself by practicing detachment, healthy boundaries, self-care, and in some cases by completely severing the relationship.

One of the reasons we continue to allow ourselves to be in relationship with toxic people is that we don’t take measures to protect ourselves because we project our standards onto others. Because we are loving, caring, responsible, and honest, we assume they are too. We would never do things to hurt other people, so we think other people won’t do things to hurt us either. And since we have goodwill and are willing to do whatever it takes to have a good relationship, we believe other people will match our efforts. When we assume or believe these things about people when they are not true, we willingly ignore reality to our own detriment.

It is absolutely necessary for you to identify toxic people in your life and discern how they are affecting you so you can protect yourself from their poison. It isn’t easy to discover you need to distance yourself or even sever a relationship. But that is part of taking care of yourself, even though you will experience the loss of the relationship and possibly a backlash from that person and others who disagree with your choice. You will have to detach from their reactions and remember that you have a right to do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself.

By Karla Downing

Relationship Devotional Prayer

 
God,

Help me to identify the toxic people in my life so I can protect myself from their poison.

Relationship Devotional Challenge

• Do you have any toxic people in your life?
• Make a plan to protect yourself from their poison.

Scripture Meditation

 
Ephesians 5:29

“After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church” (NIV).

Matthew 10:11-17

“Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard” (NIV).

Jesus understood that toxic people have the ability to poison you and that you need to protect yourself wisely.