Chit Chat over Coffee

I met a friend for coffee today and man did we talk..... We are chatters by nature anyway, but today we talked for an hour and a half & hit some pretty hard subjects and some pretty deep ones. Here's the thing. I did not set out to talk to her about issues that have been occurring lately, but God knew that I needed to spill to someone in the body, someone who would answer in the Word, not of the flesh. And he created an opportunity, an opening for the exact situation to be expressed - it was too perfect not to be of God.....

After talking it out with her, I felt I needed to repost and expound on something I had posted previously......
From a previous blog:
Husbands - women who are single sometimes troll churches seeking good Christian men - most of whom are still married. Sorry, but if your wife says someone seems to be after you - you need to put up some boundaries or hedges and listen to your wife. Women are more intuitive about this than you guys are - just the way we are made!
Wives - look at the reasons your husband could be swayed. Is he needing more attention from you? Who is the most important person in your marriage - if you answer ANYONE other than God or your spouse, you are looking in the wrong place. My pastor put it best - there is only room for 3 people in that wedding ring of yours - you, your spouse & God!!!!

Ok - to put a different spin on it:
There are MEN in the church who troll churches for lonely women - whether they be single, divorced, married or what have you. There are predators out there everywhere and we have to protect ourselves and put hedges and boundaries up all around.

We women are often helpers by nature and by the time we realize "Uh-oh, wait a minute" - it can go from helping & advice to totally inappropriate, crossing a line in an instant.

I was there. I crossed a line without realizing it until I was way, way across that line. I tried to gracefully stop it and tried to be nice about it, but with some people, you absolutely cannot be nice. I am constantly learning that the hard way.

Particularly with divorced or single women, we have to protect ourselves, we have to have boundaries and we have to guard those with our lives. In talking with my friend today, I realized that I am not the only person this has happened to, even in our congregation. When I started telling the situation to her, she immediately knew who I was talking about. She immediately told me her experience with it. She immediately knew the issue. She also lambasted me for not telling her & her husband while the issue was occurring so that they could have helped me address it.

So, I have been deeply unburdened. I love that God created an opportunity for me to tell my friend what happened, discuss it with her, tell her what I had already done to address it and get her opinion about what else to do.

God is such an awesome God even when we are so far out of obedience with Him. I am constantly reminded of that - as I am walking back to that obedient place.....