No Boundaries

My friend came in my office this morning to talk. I told her that I thought about her yesterday during Bill’s sermon. She said, “Really?” and wanted to know what his sermon was on. I told her that he was starting a new series about the gap between our hurts and God eventually healing those hurts. I also told her that I could see how this series would apply to some of the things that I had experienced in my own life in the past. I invited her to come to church with me; told her that she could sit with me and Wayne and that most of the girls in our Bible Study group went to the first service, too. She said that she might come.

I am so careful not to push. I am so worried that if I keep hounding her about Bible Study and church that I might scare her away. But I continue to pray. I pray daily for wisdom and discernment because deep down, the LRH that I know, would never have the words. It is all in God’s divine plan. I truly believe that every word I have spoken to my friend have been God given.

My friend told me that her book and workbook have come in. She said she is working in it. I encouraged her to keep going. One thing she said to me last week was that her counselor told her that she “has no boundaries” or that she needed to “set some boundaries.” That encouraged me because with that comment, I knew she was getting the kind of advice she needs. And it kinda hit the nail on the head as to how I would sum up my friend’s life.

But aren’t boundaries learned? Aren’t boundaries processed conscientiously? Doesn't everybody have some sort of sense about what is right and what is wrong? I think most of the time, for some reason or other, there can be just a simple disregard for them….the “me” concept that says, “I’m just gonna do what I want to do” with no qualms about what is right or wrong. I get that way, too. Sometimes it's because I'm discouraged and I just want to say, "What's the use?" Sometimes it's pride or selfishness. But I think all of us, at one point or the other in our lives, makes that conscientious choice to do their own thing. But as Christians, you can't do your own thing without suffering the consequences or feeling bad, guilty, whatever you want to call it. You simply can't do it. That's part of knowing when you've overstepped your boundary. That's what it's like to live in the flesh and not walk in the Spirit.