I’ve always thought of boundaries in relationships as drawing a line to keep unhealthy behavior at bay. You know, such as needed for an abusive spouse or a friend who keeps infringing on your time and space.
So when I got to the “Boundaries and God” chapter in Cloud’s and Townsend’s book Boundaries, I was somewhat startled.
Why in the world would we need boundaries with God?
No one escapes criticism. All of us have experienced the hurt — ranging from slightly offensive to soul-crushing — when someone says something negative about us.
Sadly, we often take that criticism and allow it to define us. We let someone else’s judgment intimidate us and hold us back, becoming enslaved to a version of ourselves that we are not.
The truth is, we don’t have to give others the power to define us. We can turn criticism into affirmation by using it to identify our positive God-given characteristics.
Everyone fails. That reality should free us, but it doesn’t. We believe too many lies that keep us from moving past failure to freedom: We believe our failure is unredeemable. We believe failure defines us. We believe it is unforgivable. We believe others caused it. We believe we have to live in the defeat of our failure. And we believe that only bad results from failing.
As you read those statements, you probably recognize the fallacy in each one. Still, how do we shake off those lies and move forward?
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