Boundaries

Boundaries

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

“BECAUSE WE’RE ALL WORKING FROM HOME, the guardrail crash test demonstration was completed over video conference. Several of us had our kids watch the 4-door Dodge pickup slam into the guardrail at fifty-five miles per hour. Jed and Nora loved it. The guardrail did its job.”

My brother Jacob, a guardrail expert for his state’s department of transportation, enjoys telling me about his latest work projects. I’ve learned some interesting things about mountain cliffs and road safety over the years, but this notion of guardrails has been especially intriguing as I’ve wrestled with erecting appropriate boundaries in my life around relationships, time commitments, and what I invite into my life via social media.

Guardrails are sturdy and strong, erected on safe ground several feet (when possible) back from the danger they are guarding against. They are a visual and physical boundary, warning of danger sometimes before the danger itself is evident.

We sometimes erect boundaries too close to the proverbial cliff—allowing ourselves to get too close and thereby risk getting pulled off or pulled in by the very thing we were trying to avoid. What if, instead, we envisioned our boundaries based on a guardrail, establishing firm lines we don’t cross, well back from the edge of temptation, bad influences, harmful choices, and things we know aren’t ultimately good for us?

Just as guardrails are designed specifically for a particular location and installed before the moment they’re needed, we need to do the same. My boundaries set around things dangerous for me may be designed and installed differently than your boundaries. While there are things that are inherently dangerous to all of us physically or spiritually, there may be things that draw me too close to sin and dangerous choices that don’t tempt you at all. God knows our perennial weak spots, and he will help us each erect the boundaries necessary for thriving, if we allow him.

Lord, show us where our boundaries are faulty and will not hold up to a crash test. Help us shore up our weak spots with strongly built guardrails. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Sit down with pen and paper and list five things you need to avoid, establishing guardrails (or revising preexisting ones) to protect yourself.