When God created Adam and Eve, he gave them one rule.
He told Adam they must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Everything else was permissible. They only had one restriction, which God gave them for their own protection.
You cannot have true love without boundaries.
Boundaries protect us. They keep us safe.
We cannot love our children without setting boundaries or limits for them.
The two most important words a child must learn are ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Our society was founded on rules initially given to us by God in the Ten Commandments.
Jesus further refined those rules when he gave us the two great commandments; love the lord our God with all our heart and all our soul, and love our neighbour as ourselves.
These two great commandments fulfil all that was laid out in the Ten Commandments; it does not nullify them.
Unconditional love does not mean love without boundaries.
Instead, it means that whatever wrong we do, there is always an open door to forgiveness and reconciliation.
God will never turn His back on us.
He always stands ready to forgive us, and welcome us home.
~ Contributed by J Robertson of the Jerilderie Uniting Church.
