living for others

We often times think of the term living for others in a servant type of outlook. When I say that I am living for God and for others, I am in a sense saying that I am laying aside my wants and my thoughts for those of others. I am doing my best in every situation to put others first in my daily walk.
We know that we need to share our resources with others, so long as we take care of our own family's needs we need to be attentive to the needs of others and help when we can. We need to realize that if we are living for others, some of our resources need to go to others. But, there is another piece of this puzzle that we sometimes overlook. It's our actual actions and lifestyles.
In 1 Corinthians 8:13 we read, "Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to sin."
Teenagers ask me a lot how they can decide whether they should go somewhere or not, do something or not, or hang around certain people or not. Usually, if they are asking me, the answer should be "no". But, I tell them to think about 2 things.
First, can you glorify God in that setting. As a believer in CHrist your main goal is to glorify and worship God, so if you can't do that in the setting that is in question then you shouldn't go.
Second, if you can glorify God in that setting, and you are strong enough to avoid temptations in the situation, is your weakest Christian friend strong enough. You see we have to think of them.
I'll give you an example: In high school I was pretty much the leader in our youth ministry. I had a lot of strong Christian friends that ran with me, we played different sports, but on the weekends we could be found together at one anothers' houses or at a church youth event somewhere. But, of my friends there were a few that were weaker in their walk with God. I had to be very careful once I realized this just what I involved myself in. I had to watch my steps and make sure that I didn't get involved in anything that they couldn't handle. I could go to people's houses where drinking or drugs were at and it was a known fact that others would not even offer because they knew I wasn't interested at all. But, there were some who couldn't resist if put in that situation so I had to distance myself from it.
We had another friend who was just as strong as me, who would still go to the parties he shouldn't, and eventually one of the younger guys he hung out with was drinking and doing drugs. By his own choice yes, but he was led there by a leader.
So living for others isn't just serving them, it's also understanding their Spiritual strength and watching out for it.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!