empathy in relationships | July 14, 2025

Recently, I had a meeting with someone, and we were having conversation about what does it mean to lead people well, specifically from a place of empathy. And what I communicated I think is is very valuable and can add a lot of value to your life. What does it mean to be empathetic? Having empathy for people, which is different than sympathy, being sympathetic towards people. How do we be empathetic?

What does it mean? I'm gonna give you some, I guess, some bullet points to think through this week in how you deal with relationships as you try to add value to people's life. Being empathetic seeks first to understand versus to be understood. When we lead with listening, the first point, lead with listening versus trying to communicate is so important in creating healthy relationships. I would encourage to ask intentional questions and then give space to let them answer.

Avoid rushing to like fix the situation. Instead, hear and process and then ask questions. One of the most important things in being empathetic is is setting boundaries. So one of the emotional boundaries to set is that you're responsible to people. You're not responsible for people.

You're responsible to serve people, to add value to people, but you're not responsible for people themselves. You can say yes to helping, but no to enabling. There are patterns in people's lives that we're not called to enable. Called to share truth, and empathy is sharing truth even if it hurts. Truth, being truthful can be sometimes the most empathetic thing you can do.

When looking at adding value to someone's life, it's not just being sympathetic and saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." But it's being truthful with them and helping them understand potentially where they can grow. We are called to show up with presence, not with pity. Our presence helps add value to people's life. We offer support that strengthens, not solutions that rescue.

We are called to help people grow and mature, not to rescue them from their situation. Here's a question to ask that I love this question. When you're sitting down with someone who's in a hard spot this week, ask them this. "What do you need most right now?" What do you need most right now?"

The other question that would be an enabler question would be how can I fix this? How can I fix this for you? You're not called to fix things for people. You're called to add value and to help them in their season. Again, being empathetic means being truthful.

Empathy must be grounded in truth. Don't enable dysfunction in name of love. Real empathy is honest and truthful and sometimes it hurts. Love love without truth creates dependency. If you just love people in their dysfunction, it creates dependency.

But when you love with truth, it can create true lasting change. As you just kind of go throughout the week, think through relationships in your lives that you could sit down with and say, "hey, how can I add value to your life?" Being honest and being truthful and helping to create boundaries, but not taking and absorbing on the emotions of others. Healthy empathy doesn't mean carrying everyone's emotions like your own. You don't carry the burdens and emotions and take that home with you.

It's not like, let me wear your shoes until I fall. Right? It's what's it like to be in your shoes, relate to that, and then provide them with some type of value for the week. Let's be empathetic. Let's share truth and love and help people grow this week.