A World Without Boundaries

Madison had taekwondo, but Daddy was with another father sort of looking on, and more looking at baseball cards we brought in.  One of Madison's friends, Andrew, has a father who is a big Yankee fan, but despite this we get along!  Daddy remembers going to a few Yankee games growing up, including one magical trip to a game versus the White Sox.  It was the whole Yankee Stadium experience, and I got to see the 1979 Yankees play.  I have all of their baseball cards, amongst many others, and this dad was super into it, looking at all these great players.  We got to walking through memory lane, looking at some great players from the 80's, then 90's.  It was so many cards, we didn't get through all of them.  Meanwhile, Madison was much improved from Tuesday, feeling a lot more confident about her form and movement tonight, shaking off a lot of that rust that was still evident from earlier.  She wasn't happy with herself so much on Tuesday, but tonight she said she did pretty good.  And she looked great out there on the mat too.  One thing though is how sore she's been lately, getting back into the swing of things.  She feels it the next day, she says, but tonight she could tell she was going to be sore in the morning!

The weather is cooling down outside, which makes you think it is winter or something.  There's actually a pretty cold forecast upcoming, so it's time to bundle up certainly.

That church from Maine sent us a gift, and although we're fasting, we got two of these:

It's a box filled with Whoopie Pies, and we got two of these boxes!  These are now at our house, lurking!  Madison called dibs on one of the chocolate ones, but after the fast is over with, Daddy is laying claim to half of a pumpkin flavored one, and half of a maple one.  These things are so rich, it seems impossible to eat an entire one at once.  We'll do half on one day and maybe half another.  Anyway, that was a nice gift.  Daddy opened the box and we were overwhelmed by the amount of these, as the three of us looked at the contents.

Today Daddy was in the middle school, doing the outreach that we do there, but we also got a call from the White House, and we sat there to listen in on a conference call about Religious Freedom Day, which is today.  There were several proclamations and executive orders made, and we got to hear about these from one of the people there at the White House.  There were opportunities to ask questions, but Daddy thought it best just to listen and let others do the question asking.  But it was interesting that we had that opportunity.

So Camille is going to be our children's pastor at the Cumming campus, and now we have a pretty big line-up of children's pastors at the different satellite campuses.  Daddy feels pretty good about all the leadership now, although we'll miss Camille quite a bit at the local stage here.  She's grown so much since we've met her and Madison will certainly miss her.  But we'll be sure to see her a lot more, and in fact we already probably will see her more as she'll have a desk pretty close by Daddy's office.  Madison can drop by any time, right?

We read some more tonight, this after watching an episode of of "Star Wars Resistance" again.  It's Madison's latest thing she loves doing each night - we'll catch at least one episode.  After that was the devotional, prayers, hide-and-seek, and a chapter or two from "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon."  It's been a great read!

The one thing we were working on a little tonight was an oratory assignment she had to do.  Daddy was looking at that a little, but didn't fix too much here.  Madison wrote this assignment below, an essay she calls, "A World Without Boundaries."

Imagine a world without boundaries. If the world had no boundaries, many things could go right, but also wrong. There would be achievements accomplished and friends lost. The world would be limitless with so many possibilities you could take. People have always said, “The sky’s the limit,” but that’s not true. The only limit is yourself. T.F. Hodge had once said, “The sky is not my limit… I am.” There are so many boundaries that try to limit us whether it’s physically or mentally, but we won’t be limited in a boundaryless world. Even though the world we know has boundaries, that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything we want to do.

Have you ever felt like you couldn’t reach a certain goal because you just thought you couldn’t, that you aren’t good enough or you aren’t ready? That’s yourself putting up a boundary, and not your skill or capability. I have felt like I couldn’t reach my goal once because I had limited myself. I didn’t think I was going to be strong enough to break a board in my taekwondo class. It was a green board, a more challenging board to break.  It would be a struggle for a person that has low self-esteem or one that is not strong enough yet. I thought I was one of those who wouldn’t be able to break it. Also, I didn’t think I was ready to break it because it required me to do a certain kick that I just learned about a week before. There was a boundary I was putting there that kept me from thinking I could do it. Nevertheless, I broke that boundary of thinking I wasn’t going to break the board. I had broken the board on my first try. If there were no boundaries in the world, I probably would’ve broken it without even stopping to think, and maybe even broken it the next few times. Don’t let boundaries keep you from doing something you want to achieve like breaking harder boards, or even singing. In a boundaryless world, you can do everything you have ever dreamed of. 

There are so many types of boundaries that we have mentally. We have boundaries created by love, fear, and sometimes even what we take in from others. Yet in a world without boundaries, you can do anything you wanted to do without people in your way, rules to limit you, and thoughts that could restrain you. For example, if you wanted to be an actor but were afraid to fail your first audition, they would accept you because it’s a limitless world. You could also become the most famous athlete there has ever been. There are so many things you could achieve that are good. There would be no fear to hold you back, no one to restrain you, and no boundaries to keep you away. Life could turn into a place where everyone was super confident. People could tell their crushes that they have a crush on them without the fear of rejection that keeps them from doing it. People would be able to skydive because they don’t think about their fears (acrophobia). That doesn’t mean that having no limits comes without consequences. You can do quite a lot, but going past certain limits could be a bad thing.

Having no limits can also mean a lot of trouble and chaos for the world. Most try to look at the bright side, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bad side to it all. Boundaries are also there to help keep us safe from harm such as robbery and murder. Those are some things that people might want to do in the world. Someone might have hurt them mentally and/or physically that makes them want to hurt others. In school, there could be more bullying than there is now. There could be more suicidal kids around the world. If you have a friend that has ever had thoughts of taking his or her life, a world without boundaries could be the reason you’ll never meet that person.  You or someone you know might get hurt or worse. All of this would be because there are no boundaries. Also, since there are no boundaries, that means the police might not exist anymore. Laws are boundaries that protect us, and police are there to enforce the law. Without police, there would be no one to stop anyone anymore. There’d be so much chaos in the world with accidents, deaths, robbery, and many other crimes. There could even be wars, or a lot of fighting in your community. As much as you just want to see the bright side, there are still a lot of negatives of having no limits.

Boundaries are necessary in life even though. They are there to help protect us from all the harm and chaos from the world. Even though those boundaries will hold us back from certain goals, a boundaryless world can be very dangerous. A boundary to protect us would be like a traffic light. If there wasn’t one, it would be a free-for-all, and no one would be safe. There is a mental boundary that keeps some kids from taking their lives away. They would have their friends trying to help them, which makes a boundary for those who need help. 

There are a lot more possibilities of what you can do in a world without boundaries. Unlike other boundaries, fear can stop us from achieving our goals such as singing, acting, or sports. There’s that boundary that would be holding us back from achieving those goals we have set in our minds. 

A world without boundaries has so many possibilities.  There are so many achievements that can be reached, people helped, and safety provided for everyone. Yet a world without certain boundaries can result in people lost, places robbed, and safety gone. That being said, boundaries are necessary for the world, even if they limit us from our dreams, because they can protect us from chaos and dangers. If you want to achieve your goal of being something in your future or doing better in school, go for it. The only person or thing limiting you is you. You can do whatever you want as long as you believe. In Philippians 4:13, it says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Your future is unlimited.