There was a conversation I had with each rookie cop I trained. On the first night, before we stepped into our patrol car, I said, “I am going home alive tonight and I am not going to let you get us killed.” What I meant was until they learned how to survive on the streets they needed to follow my instructions so they did not make any costly mistakes.

There will be times in some relationships where you might have to issue a similar notice to some of your friends who are not yet mature in their understanding of love. These are people so loose in their life of faith they can put you and others in jeopardy. There are a lot of unnecessary casualties in certain relationships that could have been prevented with an open and honest conversation early on giving the relationship healthy boundaries and a chance to mature and become a safe place.

I made sure each rookie cop I trained understood this concept. It was my job as the mature training officer to drill this reality into their head. Life on the streets can be a brutally honest teacher. So can life in the Spirit.

 When my rookies finally became mature training officers they had the same conversation with their recruits on the first night that I had with them. That ritual conversation prevented unnecessary casualties in the natural and it will do the same in the realm of the Spirit.