My youth and beginning journey to healthy boundaries

Learning to have healthy boundaries for me started when I was about 19. I was living with a couple from the Church I attended while in college. These solid Christians were bold enough to tell me the truth in love about my lack of boundaries in my life. I was far to vulnerable to satanic attacks because I was allowing the enemy to rob me of my joy, peace and even my emotional health. I was unwittingly allowing satan to cross my boundaries. I lived by my emotions and it was a roller coaster for me each and every day. Spiritually I was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and was on fire about serving the Lord, however, I had not yet recognized that God wanted me to be like that tree planted by streams of water (Psalms 1) with good fruit and an obviously healthy spiritual walk with my Lord. Back then to those looking on it must have seemed like I was a mighty oak one day and a withering shrub the next.

If I could thank this couple for one thing they taught me while l lived in their home, it would be to love God's Word and know that God wanted His best for me. They discipled me with tough love and the truth about God's Word. I'm sure I may have bristled at times when they shared with me these vital lessons but I'm so glad my heart was soft enough to accept these lessons and in time I digested the Word of God and incorporated it into my life. Often I made excuses about my behavior (It was how I was raised, my personality, weakness in my mental ability etc) but they made sure I understood that no one but myself could be responsible for the consequences that came into my life. When necessary they firmly lectured me in order for me to understand that what I spoke over my life and what I believed about myself as a child of God would become my reality. Thanks Mama Lynn and Papa John!

Psalms 16 is a beautiful outline of what God desires for us as His children to understand what God wants us to believe is healthy and well-balanced boundaries. We need to practice these principles in order to begin the journey to a healthy, mature, overcoming Christian life. This study on Psalms 16 is not a quick fix for years of lack of or misaligned boundaries. This is something that we will constantly be seeking the Lord about and praying to have a sensitive heart in all our relationships especially with our relationship with the Lord. A soft, well tilled heart is one that God's Word can then take root and in time we find that we are like that tree planted by streams of water with wonderful, rich fruit and a foliage that attracts many to the Kingdom of God.

I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me to discover what God's Word says to us about having healthy life-giving boundaries and living within the safety zone that God designed for our lives. God gave us boundaries or hedges to keep us safe and living in a reality of knowing that walking in the Kingdom of God means righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Knowing Him in an intimate manner is key and desiring to dwell in the secret place is vital to beginning this journey.