Boundaries

I've been reading "Boundaries" by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.  You can visit the Cloud-Townsend website here.  I highly recommend this book, and I think everyone should read it.  You are either going to identify with me or you are going to think "duh," but this book has really helped me to understand how emotions were given to us by God to help us identify what boundaries we need to set for our self and the people in our life.  As Christians we are taught to deny our self, so sometimes we inadvertently think that boundaries are selfish.  However, God always designed us to know when we are hungry or need to go to the bathroom.  If we stop to eat or to use the bathroom,  no one thinks of us as selfish, but we are taking care of our own physical needs.  Emotions are designed by God to do the same.  I'll be honest and say that I did not know that emotions had this purpose: to take care of needs in an emotional sense. 

God has given us clear boundaries that we all are to abide by in His Word.  But He has crafted each one of us uniquely with different emotional responses to different situations.  I cannot explain it as adequately as you can read in the book, but I think boundaries set us free to be who God created us to be and also free us from placing judgment on others when they choose to do something differently than we think is best or even right. 

So much of what I have said on this blog probably has made no sense in light of this basic information, but I feel it is an ah-ha moment for me.