Psalm 16 mentions that "our boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places." I discovered this Psalm in college, almost 20 years ago and it struck me then, as it does today, that the things that confine me are good things.

My visitors are very imperfect people. They've hurt me deeply in the past and they're likely to hurt me again. They are not what I would have chosen. By having them in my life, I am restricted from functional, healthy relationships with them. There is a boundary there, something that I can't change at all.

Yet, it is a good thing. The pain that I've had due to them has drawn me to the arms of The Father. The healing that I've needed can only come from his hand. The changes wrought me, because of this imperfect boundary, glorify God daily. If there were no boundary, there would be nothing beautiful.

Such as it is in my home, so will it be in my family. God knows what he's doing. He put these boundary lines here for a reason.

Psalm 16

1 Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

3 As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,

10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

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