Boundaries and being Bound

This morning I was thinking about boundaries and being bound.  Yesterday when preparing to scout a possible sledding location, my intern spoke up and requested to have an additional person with us because it was his personal standard not to be alone with a woman.  I was a little defensive at first since I'm about the furthest thing from Potipher's wife that you can imagine and  I am extremely protective of all my "intern babies." He is my 6th one (2 females, 4 males).  Their safety is paramount and I want them to have a great experience and feel like they can completely trust me.  I want them to know I will only ask them to do those things that are in their best interest in helping them become competent recreational therapists.  I am also keenly aware of safety protocols.  One of the reasons why I love my male interns is because it opens up my RT programming; we can go more places since I can't go off-grounds with our male students without the presence of a male staff.  Just finding available staff for students' off grounds programming is hassle enough let alone trying to find an available staff on the clock to accommodate my intern's special request. If I would have known that he would be uncomfortable with our closed door RT office, or pulling his chair close enough to see my computer screen, or just being alone with me at any time- I probably would not have offered him the internship.  Though I will honor and respect his boundary limitations and limit our private interactions as much as I can , I told him I expect all my interns to be joined at the hip with me, at least for the first month, as they shadow my every move.  That is if they want to go where I go-do what I do-and be what I am (a Recreation Therapist).  We are bound together for the next 4 months.  It's going to be a great journey. 

I have my own boundaries, emotional and physical.  I know there are some lines you just don't cross.  Sometimes with a smile, I will push boundaries and go too fast-like when I ask too many personal questions in rapid succession.  I'm a touchy person, with pats on the back, touching arms, or giving side hugs to my students.   It was no mistake being sent to Spain on my mission; on the whole, they are an open culture of physically friendly people who greet each other and say good bye with customary hugs and kisses.  At the same time, I do not expect others to be the same way and I have to be careful not to not invade their space.  I've also been more aware of my own boundaries and I'm not afraid to defend them.  Though I think I may have offended this dude I met at a dance, I didn't feel bad refusing a New Year's Eve kiss.  I know holiday kisses with complete strangers are more "fun" than grand gestures of trust.  But this time around, I'm sticking close to my own personal standards, and I don't care if they sound prudish or silly.  I don't want to cross the line.  It's not that I couldn't cross the line-I definitely have the freedom to do whatever I want.  I just don't want to.  I want to control myself.  My desires, appetites, and passions are to be kept within the bounds the Lord has set.  Instead of feeling fettered by restrictions, I think honoring these boundaries will provide me with the freedom to really go where I want to go.  Every relationship seems to take me somewhere, and I'm not talking about "going all the way"-70's reference included.  In some relationships,  I have felt like I was on the wrong train and didn't want to go where it was leading-so I jumped off, rolled on the ground and watched the train pulling away saying, "Phew!- I'm so glad I'm not on that train!"
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As I think of being bound to covenants, I think of having perfect integrity; if I say I'm not going to cross the line-then I do not cross the line.  No one forces me, I just choose to stay in the boundaries.  It's kind of like the honor quote from Karl G. Maeser: "Place me behind prison walls--walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground--there is a possibility that in some way or another I may escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of the circle? No. Never! I'd die first!"

I know my word can be my bond-especially my word to be voluntarily bound by sacred covenants- to be worthy of His trust.   The Lord says, "I am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."  I love how I can completely trust him and he will not ask me to do anything that is not in my best interest.  He wants me to be joined at the hip with Him so I will be able to go where he goes, do what he does, be like him.  I want to be bound together with him.