"Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:33 NIV.

I have been reading Mark and today this caught my eye. I am so grateful for the friends God has cultivated into my life. I realize that the reason I have such a fondness in my heart for some people is because God established our relationship, that it is based on truth and grace. It is different when Christians bond, I think. There is a foreverness about the relationship. There is true acceptance--truly recognizing the person, knowing their flaws, but not allowing the bad to overcome good by setting up appropriate limits. Being able to set a boundary with a person, Saying "I don't want to." "No." "Not so much." "Nah." "Maybe Later." "I can't." is met with appreciation (though disappointment), but not disgust or anger, hatred or angry outbursts. Sure it hurts to be told no, but the good times are made even better when there are good boundaries.

I feel loved by the people who tell me no and those whom I can say no to. I feel a grudge against those whom I feel compelled to say yes to. That's my problem, though and I really am working on it. It's not their fault, it's mine for not saying no when I needed to. I'm learning to forgive myself for that and accept that about myself, to recognize when it is happening again and try really hard to stop. One thing I've done is delay giving an answer or delay a response for a while.