How funny that I would get to apply the blog even as I was writing it. I just came back from a great trip to Palawan with three of our campus directors. We had a great time meeting with youth pastors from a number of other churches. It’s inspiring to see other groups who also value and prioritize students.
But this is about something else. As I was on the plane, writing the last blog, I noticed a young woman, with major high heels and a shorts that weren’t much longer than her shoes. She took her seat on the far end of our row, with an empty seat between us.
I thanked God for the principles in the blog I was writing and for the men of conviction who I travelled with. And I had to chuckle at the chance to apply the blog so quickly, particularly the point of traveling with other people.
Clarifications:
- This isn’t a statement about her character or personality. For all we know she’s a well-intentioned, sensible person.
- This isn’t a presumption that anything would have happened. It would most definitely be nothing. But that’s not the point.
- This is an honest acknowledgement of the reality of sin. The battle would be in my own mind and heart first. The Bible says to look lustfully at a woman is already sin.
So I guess the short point in this blog I’m making, almost an appendix to the previous one, is I’m so thankful for friends and family who have high standards and boundaries for me to observe and emulate. I felt so secure around them knowing they walked by the same principles as well and that they’d remind me to walk in mine as well.
In the previous blog, someone left a comment saying there was a problem with the boundaries I mentioned, that they were too high. And for much of my life, I’d feel embarrassed for professing what I believed. But that’s not necessary.
Obviously, we shouldn’t take pride in them or consider ourselves superior to others because of them. (I’ve made that mistake too.) But neither should we be ashamed of them.
There was a 19 year old girl who attended a talk that Carla and I did who described being pressured by people around her to lower her high standards which she believed were from God. But she did well by sticking to her convictions. She did not need to be ashamed. Neither do we.
Instead, find people who are walking the same way because God told it to them too. And enjoy the benefits of that disciplined life.
So do you have people you can trust to help you maintain those boundaries?
