Boundaries in Life

Another one of the seminars we sat in on at the youth ministry conference (also by Chap Clark), was on boundaries. Do you ever struggle with boundaries? I do!

List your priorities. If you have to make two lists, make two. Make one list with what you WANT your priorities to be and the other list, with what your priorities really ARE. It is so easy to get our priorities confused. It is easy to put one over the other. It is easy to get captivated by something and let it control you.

Where are you at?

For me personally, my number one priority is God. If you are a Christian, many would probably say this is a “given.” I guess really, it should be. BUT. How often do we NOT keep God as our priority? When we have one priority over another, it means that nothing should compromise it. Nothing will get in the way of pursuing the desire of keeping that as a priority. That is when boundaries come in.

Think about this:
Have you ever thought about how you read the Bible?

Eisegesis is reading the Bible in a way that you interpret it through your own ideas, agendas, or biases. Over the past year, I felt that I too, often read a passage, take it out of context and “think” I know what it means. I read it through my own lense of life, instead of reading it through the lense of what the Scripture is saying.

For instance, have you read a verse and thought: did Jesus REALLY mean that? No, He must of meant…

That is when we are throwing in our own agendas, desires, and boundaries. I have heard certain verses read and then the reader/leader says “what Jesus really meant to say is…”

WHAT?
How can we say that? Who in the world are WE to say what Jesus meant? Take it for what it’s worth!

I think about this passage from Luke:
Luke 14:26 – If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

I will be the first to say that I struggle with this verse. I LOVE Dan. I LOVE my family. But, if I am putting them before Christ, I have my priorities all messed up. If I think they are more important than Christ or even love them more than my Father, I am not a true disciple of Christ.

So when I say I have God has my #1 priority, I am making a STRONG committment!

My second priority is Dan the man. If I am loving and living for Christ in the way He deserves, then naturally, I too, will serve, submit, and follow Dan – and vice versa. I think that God would not call me to something that He would not call Dan to – and again, vice versa. As we left the seminar, we realized how comforting it was to know that we BOTH feel God leading us to Minnesota. In ALL of the decisions and struggles we have been through, we have felt God leading us closer together, as we weave our way through the path God has laid out before us. Because God wants marriage to be a once and for all, again, He would not lead Dan to something that He would not also be leading me to as well – like Minnesota!

And the priorities continue. Family, friends, jobs, etc. In all of these, Chap made it very clear that without Christ being our #1 priority, all of our other “boundaries” will fail. We cannot let ANYTHING come into those boundary lines that don’t belong. If we put our friends before our relationship with our husband, our marriage and our faith in God will be affected. If I put Dan before God, my faith and my marriage will be a reflection of that. NOTHING, is to get in between me and God.

So where are your priorities at? Where are your boundaries? Are you able to say “no” to that one thing that will impose on your other priorities? I am not saying that you can NEVER hang out with your friends because you need to be reading your Bible. But if you haven’t read your Bible in awhile and you keep choosing to hang out with your friends instead, then yes, you should think about your priorities/boundaries.

I am hoping this all makes sense – what it comes down to is that we need to keep God as the center – as the core of who we are. What a blessing it is to bear His name – so lets live like that!