Each year I talk to couples during the holidays who want to know how to entertain family members who have proven to be challenging to enjoy. Typically, their initial question is: “How do we set boundaries for our relatives?”
I do not care for the boundary concept, and even less so when that’s how someone leads the conversation when sharing their concern. I realize you can pull the boundary idea from the Bible, but the word generally has a negative connotation and, usually, a misapplication.
There is a better way to talk about how to weave your relatives into your autonomous domestic empire. How about a more redemptive question: “What is a gospel-motivated worldview regarding engaging my challenging relatives?”
Framing this opportunity as a gospel-centered opportunity rather than a boundary construct makes it redemptive rather than reactive.
1. Boundaries connote fences, hedges, and maybe some razor wire.
2. The gospel indicates redemptive thinking and restorative acts (John 3:16).
Though both approaches anticipate saying complicated things, if you come from a gospel-motivated presupposition, you’re likely to say what you must with the right attitude and restorative words.
Living out the gospel does not prohibit awkward and challenging conversations. To live the gospel in your community, you must do it right (Ephesians 4:29). READ MORE: https://lifeovercoffee.com/the-relatives-are-coming-the-relatives-are-coming-what-am-i-to-do/
The shocking and inspiring story of Sophie Ottaway.
Watch the full interview here: https://lifeovercoffee.com/podcast/ep-490-sophie-ottaway-engineered-at-birth-to-be-a-girl/
Focus on the Cause, not the Effect, so you can remove the cause and not be affected by the effect.
A local church’s worship value is not primarily about the music but the lifestyle because you never ask, “Are you worshiping?” The reason is that we worship all the time. God made us for worship—wired us for worship, you could say.
Worship is part of what it means to be image-bearers. Who could do otherwise? The better question is, “What or whom do we worship?” https://lifeovercoffee.com/three-characteristics-of-a-fantastic-local-church/
Whenever a person chooses sinful anger, he is, in effect, giving the other person control over him. It’s counterintuitive. In his anger, he is like a marionette, a puppet on a string.
Anger toward someone is the total submission of their thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors to the other person. It is not self-control, as governed by the Spirit of God, but someone out of control or under the control of another spirit. https://lifeovercoffee.com/podcast/ep-110-help-for-the-angry-person/
