Ilove living in the Ozarks.

The beauty of our little slice of America is hard to beat. One thing that comes with the territory is curvy roads.

You are hard-pressed to find a straight road between point A and point B.

One more thing that comes with the territory is road safety signs. Just between Shell Knob and Cassville, I have personally counted over 400 signs and guardrails designed to keep you on the road and out of the ditch.

If you ever look closely at a guardrail, you often see it marked with paint or scrapes from when a driver has tested it by drifting a bit. And guardrails are proactive, intentional and expensive. And, if the State of Missouri cares so much to keep you out of the ditch, how much more does your Father in Heaven want to keep your life out of the ditch?

Just like we need guardrails on the road, we need guardrails in our lives. The question is not “if” you need guardrails in your life; it’s a matter of “when”.

Because I don’t care who you are, even the best of us are going to drift.

You may ask what a guardrail in your life is. A guardrail is a healthy boundary established by Heavenly wisdom. We need guardrails in our lives. We need guardrails around our marriages, our kids and our finances.

To build guardrails, we need wisdom. We need wisdom to create them in the right places.

And we get wisdom from the Word of God, and a great place to start is the Book of Proverbs.

The book of Proverbs is filled with practical wisdom on how and where to build guardrails in your life.

First, you must acknowledge that you need God’s wisdom.

Most of us think we are such good drivers that we never need guardrails in our lives.

At the end of the day, you will never ask for something you don’t think you need, so admitting you need God’s wisdom in your life to build healthy guardrails is the first step.

Then, you must pursue wisdom. Proverbs 2:4 says you must “look for wisdom like you are looking for silver and search for it as you would treasure.” Wisdom is available to us all, but it’s going to cost you something to pursue. You have to search for it and extract it. Wisdom will provide you with a heavenly perspective in earthly situations.

Lastly, once you begin to gain wisdom, you must apply it to your life. You must do something with it! Proverbs 2:12-13 says, “Wisdom will save you from the ways of the wicked and keep you on the straight path.”

Wisdom will keep you out of the ditch and on the road. You must apply the wisdom you pursued to your life because good intentions without faithful actions are pointless. It does not matter how good you intend to have a healthy marriage, or be a great parent to your children, or have sound finances. You must apply your wisdom with guardrails in these areas.

So, what do guardrails look like? In your marriage, you agree that there are never any secrets between spouses. No matter the situation or event, you are open and honest, keeping everything in the light.

Guardrails with your kids means not allowing any technology in their bedrooms: no gaming systems, no phones, no tablets. The answer is no.

The guardrail is established before the issue arises. That is a solid guardrail you establish, and it never moves. Guardrails around your finances are that you never go into debt. No matter how bad you want that new car or want to upgrade your phone, you do not go into debt.

You set that guardrail, and you never go into that ditch.

Life can throw lots of twists and turns at you, but the more intentional and proactive you are with the guardrails in your life, the harder it will be for your life to ever end up in the ditch.

And around here, you never want to be in the ditch.

Greg Armstrong is the lead pastor at Lakeside Christian Church in Shell Knob. He may be reached at lccskminister@gmail.com.