One evening several years ago, as I fixed popcorn on the stove for my kids (the old fashioned way), an inadvertent blunder became fodder for an object lesson I used years later as a friend and I led our church's junior high and high school youth group.
We had been discussing personal and spiritual "boundaries" in the group, so I decided to reach back into my kitchen from years before for my popcorn mishap to demonstrate the chaos of a life without boundaries. Ushering all the students into the church kitchen, I pulled out a large pot, added oil and a scoop of popcorn kernels. After turning up the heat, I began visiting with the kids, making sure all were out of reach of any splattering hot oil. This time, I intentionally left the lid off the pot.
