Guardrails

You may or may not have noticed how often there are guardrails on the roads you travel. They appear in areas of increased risk where running off the road would bring potentially fatal damage. These structures should give us something to bounce off of to prevent us from doing too much damage to ourselves.

An author I recently read wrote about the guiding principles for her life and how they served that same function. These are the values that shape the decisions she makes and help to keep her on the best path as she pursues her life vision. It’s vital to know our own guiding principles or we run the risk of causing damage to ourselves and the people we care about.

What principles do you hold tightly to? How do these shape the way you think, speak, and act? How are they protecting you and keeping you focused in the best possible direction?

Creating the mental, emotional, and spiritual space to clearly define these principles is helpful for us to stay on the path we want to live on.

Protective Tools

When I was in high school, I was out with a couple of friends driving one night after work at Taco Bell. We were just cruising and listening to music until my friend (the driver) took a curve too quickly and slammed into the guardrail. We were completely fine except for the now-caved-in front bumper. Even though he ended up in a great deal of trouble for the damage to the car, hitting the guardrail saved us from sliding off the road into a canal. We didn't think so at the time, but the guardrail had done its job of keeping us safe.

We all need guardrails in our life to protect us. I wrote earlier this week about my role as a protector and I truly believe this is part of who I am supposed to be for my family and people close to me. I can't effectively do that by simply thinking about it or making it a desire. To provide protection I have to put things in place to make us safe. This might be someone I trust for accountability, restrictions I put on my choices, strict boundaries for relationships, a rigid budget, or even Internet filters. These physical tools become the guardrails to keep me on the right path and protect those I care about. Slamming into one of these won't necessarily be comfortable, but I would rather run up against a safety device than to make a choice that sends me spiraling off the right path.

Security Detail

I feel one of my roles in our family is to serve as a protector.  I’m not solely responsible for this, but it is something I think about often. I recognize objectives we all have to commit to keeping and try to make decisions with them in mind (as much as possible.) I don’t have a comprehensive list I read over, but there are certain things which are important:

- Our integrity—doing things to be consistent in our individual and family character
- Values—strengthening the important things which define who we are
- Vision—maintaining a big picture of who we want our family to be
- Heart—keeping our family safe emotionally
- Future—making sure we are setting ourselves up for the best possible future
- Legacy—setting up a foundation of family faith for our future generations
- Purity—helping each other make the best decisions
- Family dynamic—watching out for each other & keeping a safe home dynamic
- Time—making sure our time together is protected above all other time

How are you doing this? What boundaries are you setting up to keep your family safe?

Frontal Assault

The clip above is one of my very favorite moments from the show, "The Office." The humor is obvious, but it struck me yesterday (pun intended) that it accurately describes how I sometimes allow things to attack me. You would think that I would recognize the work of the enemy when it comes at me in familiar ways. I hope that I will be able to deflect the blow when it is aimed directly at me and yet I often ignore it until it's too late.

Even though I like to think I am on guard, I allowed it to happen to me yesterday. After I realized it, I almost couldn't believe that I had fallen for some of the same old manipulations. I've got to be more vigilant in watching for distractions and disruptive attempts. While I certainly can't guarantee 100% deflection, I hope that I will get better at recognizing and avoiding traps as I keep maturing.

Guarded-Part 2

Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

What things do we need to protect our hearts from? We each have areas of personal sin that cause us more difficulty than it does for someone else. There is still a root of sin that has the potential to damage each of us if we are not careful. We have to learn what we need to guard against so that we can be successful in our protection. What do we need to guard against?

• Gossip: needless conversation about others that is not encouraging or uplifting
• Lust: fixating (even briefly) on others & allowing your mind
• Envy: becoming so desirous of someone else & their status/possessions/abilities
• Pride: giving ourselves the credit instead of honoring God
• Apathy: resigning ourselves to not caring 
• Superiority: a hardening of the heart as we elevate ourselves above others
• Self-worship: seeking our own satisfaction instead of looking to honor God

Determining our areas of vulnerability and developing a plan of protection will help us be successful in guarding our hearts. We may find that that old adage is true: sometimes the best offense is a good defense.

Guarded

Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

The heart is our most vital organ. While we can live (for a while anyway) with any other organ malfunctioning, we won't survive if our heart doesn't work. All other bodily functions are dependent on the heart and its ability to pump blood. Physically, our rib cage protects the heart from incidental & intentional damage by deflecting a blow that could potentially kill us. Our bodies are intentionally designed with this bony shield in place to keep our hearts protected.

On a spiritual level the heart is also where all of our emotions and desires flow from. It is what drives us to take action, to pursue relationships, change careers, and be passionate about making a difference. Our heart is the center of who we are and it fuels all other things--both healthy & unhealthy. What do we use to protect our heart spiritually? What barriers do we put up that keep us away from harmful thoughts & actions?

• Accountability partners: allowing other people the right to speak truth and help us stay focused
• Honest communication with our spouse: sharing struggles & working together in love
• Daily prayer & confession of sin: constantly asking God to cleanse & heal our heart
• Internet filters & reporting software: practical tools that will help us avoid potential pitfalls
• Avoidance of tempting places & people: learning new behaviors and avoiding old ones
• Consistent spiritual disciplines: practicing the habits of the Christian faith to maintain our commitment

Guarding your heart isn't a passive activity, but something we have to earnestly & diligently pursue. Our heart is valuable enough that the effort is worth it.