The Learning Curve: Day 2
All you need to say is simply, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5:37 NIV
One simple verse that will be read very differently—depending on which one of two groups you fall into.
Group 1: “’Yes’ is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is ‘no.’ Got it. Next question?”
Group 2: “Yes, that is true, but I am pretty sure I can make this work.”
As a card-carrying member of the second group, I can testify that for some of us, learning firm boundaries is lifetime proposition. The fact that our internal wishy-washiness is reinforced by a general human consensus that “yes” is far kinder, far more Christian than “no”? Well, it does not help. (Not that group 1 really cares what anyone else thinks.)
However, when you take into account that the above Scripture verse is the very words of our Lord, you are brought to an unavoidable and very ugly reality: Where there are porous boundaries, Satan is alive and well.
For starters, fuzzy boundaries are synonymous with misplaced priorities. We say we are committed to a few things and our intentions might be 100% valid, but the reality of our priorities is revealed by how we invest our energy and interest, moment by moment.
Many years ago now, our daughter was a young mother homeschooling four young children and we were newly retired with time on our hands. More than once the thought of a road trip to see their family and spoil our grandkids a little occurred to us. Often when I called to arrange a time, she would say, “You can’t come. We are in the middle of school.” Sometimes she would suggest another time; sometimes she wouldn’t.
Did I get my feelings hurt? You bet I did. But guess what? We learned to live with it. All these years later, she has four beautifully-educated children. The oldest just completed his Master’s, the middle two are in college on academic scholarships and the youngest, a talented artist, is a sophomore in high school.
Recently, she was asked to participate in a panel discussion for homeschoolers and contribute her insights. “But Mom,” she said, “I don’t know what I can say to them.” I suggested she could share nothing better or more encouraging than that story and the firm boundaries that produced long-term success.
Satan is a prowling lion, (1 Peter 5:8), but he is a patient one. Often he pounces and disables his prey in one swift action, but he may find it to his advantage to nibble around the edges until all life has been drained. It is all the same to him.
Nancy Shirah
