1. Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.
2. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you . . . yours is the earth and everything that’s in it. –Ruyard Kipling
3. I can’t do everything in the world. –Kimberly
4. Things like picking up crosses and denying ourselves seldom find a place on our agendas. –David Faust
5. For excellence, ask an expert . . . for wisdom, ask a sage . . . for honesty, ask a child.
Who would have thought a big pile of dirt could make something fun and beautiful?
On one side of our pond is just a bank, a man-made boundary that turned the springs on the side of a hill into a body of water. It is not fancy, just dirt. But it makes all the difference. It holds the whole thing together.
It’s big enough to walk on, to leave footprints in the snow. It’s big enough to stow a boat on, to arrange a few dead logs on for seats. It’s big enough to anchor a dock on. And although you cannot see them, there is even room for sustaining infant mayhaw trees, which will provide us with the best juice in the world.
But it’s just a pile of dirt.
Daffodils
On the other end of it are the daffs. A huge, glorious flock of daffodils pops up on this bank every spring. They are always the first open, due to the warmth off the water, I guess. They are already out and waiting for a bit more sun, to show some yellow for us. All they needed was a pile of dirt.
People are not dirt. But I want to be there when needed, nothing fancy, just there for whoever or whatever the need. I want to hold my end of this life in place and be firm and supportive. I want to matter. I want folks to feel like they could anchor something in me.
Look at this dock, extending the fishing surfaces around the pond, into the pond.
Boundaries in life can extend this way, too. When does this happen?
In emergencies. Someone might drive too fast with a passenger who needs medical care. A widow might need to take charge of money she never thought of before. A bystander might direct traffic around an accident, just like a policeman, and with the same success. Anyone could dive into the pond above, to save a life, even if it were posted “no swimming”. It would be the right thing to do.
With maturity. When we learn more, practice more, know more, we can find ourselves freed from old boundaries and invited to do or to enjoy more. Little children would not be safe on the above dock, but older ones who know how to swim can have permission to try it out. It’s a fun, wobbly experience!
On special occasions. We skip diets for weddings. We block streets for parades. We eat with our fingers for bar-b-que. The dock above has had very little people who were non-swimmers on it, sometimes, when grown-ups decided it was okay, and when the little ones held someone’s hand.
So, are your boundaries extended these days? Have you had to extend yourself because of an emergency? Have you “graduated” to a time of fewer restrictions or more privileges? Are you in a special bubble of different boundaries? Look around you and enjoy the stretch.
It comes from someone who is not over you in authority.
It comes from someone who is not heeding his or her authorities.
It takes over an area of your life not under its authority.
First, when someone tries to set boundaries over or around you and is, himself, not your legitimate authority, you need not heed these boundaries. For instance, if someone else’s husband thinks you should wear your hair a certain way, he’s full of beans! Wearing your hair for someone else’s husband is preposterous. The same would go for someone else’s boss. Only your own boss should be able to tell you what to do on the job and when. This really is simple.
Second, if someone is not minding the law or other authorities over him, he may be out of line for telling you what to do. For instance, a policeman who asked you to rob a bank would be too obviously not one to heed. If your boss asked you to vote a certain way on a jury, that would be similar. Any authority who tried to make you break any law would be contemptible.
Third, the particular areas of your life that are yours, alone, do not fall under any other authorities. Your boss, although he is expected to be over you, still cannot tell you how to feed your children, what TV to watch, when to plant your garden, etc., because it is none of his business.
Also, these scenarios are not truly boundaries; they are bondage. Pay attention and learn to tell the difference.
Boundaries are wonderful. Without them we could not have ponds. No ponds, no fish. Yes, we like boundaries. I think the fish do, too.
One boundary we think we don’t welcome is the womb. Wombs are wonderful. Without them we could not have babies. I think the babies like them, too.
But we ignore what we know is true and we violate that quiet, safe place for our growing babies, every day. Over 3000 times per day. It is impossible to violate our own bodies and our children’s lives the way we do, and still feel human.
Look at this:
In Pennsylvania, they’ve found a physician/abortionist who has made a profession and a large fortune from violating the boundaries of our wombs. How did he do it? By accepting payment in cash, not reporting his earnings, storing his money at home instead of in a bank, not disposing of bio-hazards, not sterilizing equipment, not providing gowns for patients, and barely paying staff.
Oh, and he sold drugs on the side. Cash, only, please.
More than half the people who went into his “clinic” died. You know, all the babies died, and several of the moms, too. It was just like the good ol’ days, minus the coat hanger. “Safe and rare”, my foot.
The only good thing about it, if it can be called good, is the wording the Philadelphia reporter, Stephanie Farr, used as she wrote her detailed report about Dr. Gosnell’s goings on:
“How many severed baby spines does it take to pay for a $984,000 shore house? How many severed infant feet is a boat worth?”
I am glad she said it that way. I don’t know how she had the nerve to write this truth in such big newspaper, nor how she got by with it, but there it was, on the Internet, for all to see. For all to think about. For all to try to grasp.
Not only does abortion mistreat women; it mistreats babies, violates wombs, ignores boundaries.
Boundaries occur everywhere and they are good. Think of a horse or a toddler without a fence. Think of a dog without rules. Think of your bank account without a PIN. We love these boundaries and use them to the fullest.
We agree with boundaries for others, but for some reason, we cannot reconcile ourselves with boundaries for self. Think of the red light runners. Think of all the overdrawn bank accounts. Think of overweight. We refuse to see the good in boundaries and quickly shrug them when they are imposed upon self.
People who ruin lives overeating, overspending, and running red lights probably would tell you the boundaries are good, but . . . deep down we hope some other rule cancels the ones we don’t like. A friend once actually told me eating cheese with apple pie will cancel the calories in the pie. Another friend told me she divorced her husband because, “divorce is too easy these days.” That’s a reason?
Actually, marriage used to be a boundary for most people. It kept the rightful spouses in and pretenders and diseases out, a good thing. These days, we’re so used to tossing boundaries for perceived convenience, we fall in and out of love, marriage, and all other “affairs” at the blink of an eye.
Do not get me wrong. I do not think every obese, broke, divorced person who accidentally wrecked while running a red light is bad.
I just think with so many, it may be a trend. Just look at all the boundaries and rules we ignore, and their resulting ruinous counterparts:
1. Marriage–divorce
2. Pregnancy–abortion
3. Motherhood–day care
4. Budgeting–bankruptcy
5. Contentment–stress
6. Cooking–eating out
7. Seatbelt and texting laws–funerals
This incomplete list shows how all-encompassing the problem is.
Let’s each work to shorten this list, to add a few more boundaries to our lives.
The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:16-17 NIV
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