Respecting Boundaries
You ever have those moments in scripture study where the Lord steps in and teaches you something about yourself you didn't know how to learn?
Recent experiences have made me recognize that I don't understand when to help others, and when to disengage because they don't want my help. It's not in my nature to just let people struggle, even when that's what they want. Why should I let someone make their own lives harder if I can help them avoid it?
Then I read Galatians 6:2-5, where Paul explains the answer to this question:
2 Bear ye one another’s , and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
4 But let every man his own , and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
5 For every man shall his own burden.
My mind was expanded, my heart eased. I know better now how to proceed in moments like that. There are valid reasons someone could not want my help. The right thing to do is to accept that. I can still make myself available if they change their mind. But honoring their boundaries is how I can show them I respect them, even when I don't understand what they're trying to accomplish.
I won't understand the reasoning behind every person who turns away my desire to help them. And that's okay. I don't need to understand the reasons why to respect someone else's boundaries. Respecting their boundaries is sometimes the best way I can help someone, and that's enough.
