Like children playing, making cars, houses and forts out of boxes we adults build invisible boxes for one another.  Boxes of expectation, roles, position, and a hundred other words to describe the box we have come to call our identity, or role, our “place”.  We never stop to think about what that box means, how it might affect us and our choices or the way we think. Our box limits our choices, restricts our vision, and frustrates our gifts.

This morning I had coffee with a good friend who told me I was living in a box.  He didn’t know where I got it, but he described it well.  As he listened to me he made me aware  of how restricted my vision had become because of the box I had accepted many years ago.  It was humbling to realize I had been given a box and had never questioned its role in my life.  Was it right? Should I get into it? Is this the way I should live?  Is this how I should think?

Without any questions I took the boxes handed me and made them my own. They have limited me, identified me, and restricted God’s work in my life.  How did I ever let this happen? Why did I believe this box was what I needed to identify me?

Children love boxes.  They aren’t so much fun when they define your life, your thinking or your values as an adult.  I can’t believe that I let this happen….happy to look out the hole I had cut in my box and survey the world around me….trying to make boxes like mine for others….only to find I had made prisoners of us all.

I’m taking a different tack today as I look at my thoughts and my life.  I’ve decided it’s time to be done with the boxes of childhood and walk in the freedom of the grace that Christ has provided.

Read Romans 8 as you look at your own life. What boxes have you made your own?  How have you missed God’s grace by accepting the boxes others have given you?

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

The post Boxes first appeared on CHRISTIAN REP.

This is an amazing book filled with 365 ways to spread joy and encouragement throughout the year. Broken down by month, Marie leads you day by day through a whole year of so many ways to bless others.

Ways such as…

January 25 – Leave a sticky note of encouragement on everyone’s computer today…

February 6 – Recycle magazines by giving them to a women’s shelter or even a nursing home…

June 11 – Give kind words freely.

August 28 – Pay a local teenager to mow a neighbor’s lawn. Two acts of spreading joy in one!…

October 21 – Run errands for a new mom. This is such a valuable gift of time….

December 21 – Make 20 sack lunches and pass out to homeless in your area…

 Why not check out the many ways you can encourage your family, friends, and your community. You too can make an impact no matter how small, like a ripple in a pond…all in the name of Jesus!

The post Make A Difference With SpreadingJOY first appeared on CHRISTIAN REP.