Most of my life I have perceived love to be like a rubber band. I knew there to be a generous amount of flexibility and stretch in it, but love would always have a breaking point when pulled to the limit. I grew up watching my family navigate complications and relationships within our blended family with carefully set boundaries around love and very clear definitions on what is love and what love is not. True, this approach probably did keep me out of a lot of trouble as a teen/young adult – I didn’t involve myself in a cycle of bad relationships. Now, however, many years later, I am the spouse and parent navigating complications and relationships. I am bumping into my own boundary lines that have worked hard to keep hurt and dysfunction to a minimum with clearly defined communication and expectations. The problem is, I can’t stop the hurt. Nor can I control decisions made by others, especially those closest to me. In fact, I have a hard time controlling my own self at times.
Don’t get me wrong, boundaries are in all good intent a healthy mechanism, as is good communication. However, they are the rubber band. They will be stretched and will break when the stretching goes beyond their limit. As I am learning, it will go beyond the limit again and again.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21)
I have had good intentions, conversations, clearly defined boundaries to assure success in my family and in those relationships around me. The problem is, love isn’t a rubber band.
“8 Love never fails”… (I Corinthians 13:8a)
I was trying to come up with a good analogy for what love is like. But, love has no limit. There is nothing on this earth that is limitless to compare love to. There is only one thing that is outside time, resources, human capacity or even creation. You know what I’m getting at. God.
