In this last week of our Healthy Relationships worship series, we turn to the importance of boundaries and love. Both are needed and work together. A boundary is a line that marks a limit, and, in a relationship, communicates what is okay and what is not okay. Love, from the Greek word agape, is redemptive good-will, holy affection, unconditional care, and concern. I offer you this description of Paul’s words that opened my heart a little bit more when I read it:

love takes its time

makes itself good and useful

love doesn’t envy

it doesn’t boast

it doesn’t bluster

it doesn’t make a scene

it doesn’t look after its own interests

it doesn’t throw fits

it doesn’t dwell on the negative

it takes no pleasure in injustice

but is delighted by the truth

love upholds everything

trusts in everything

hopes for everything

endures everything

love never falls away

-from The Authentic Letters of Paul, c 2010.