T Keller on freedom:

“Disciplines and constraints liberate us only when they fit with the reality of our nature and capacities. A fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if it is restricted and limited to water.

If we put it out on the grass, it’s freedom to move and even live is not enhanced, but destroyed. The fish dies if we do not honor the reality of its nature. - In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions.” 

In my younger years maybe I would have balked if you’d told me that restriction and liberation could live side-by-side, and maybe even be mistaken one for the other. Marriage has taught me a bit about it, and motherhood more. Being a grown up is hard, guuuys.

Trading out old dreams for new ones, being able to close doors, choosing and owning something, and following through when it’s not quite comin together as planned... Our culture certainly is not a big fan of restrictions at all, and neither am I, generally But the irony is that by aiming to avoid being restricted, we are restricted in another way. By failing to say the no’s, I miss out on my yes’s.

God, let me see those restrictions that LIBERATE ME every day, let me know and value them for what they are. I want to live in joy with all the closed doors and feel the light streaming through that big beautiful open one that I live under.