Character Confession: Possessive About Boundaries
Where did this week go? Where is this summer going? I don’t know about your house but we are running on full throttle this summer. I knew I was a homebody but I had no idea how much so until I was hardly at home. I’m praising God everyone is healthy and well but the schedule is out of control.
Before I go to the next place I thought I’d share my Saturday confession.
It’s the best word I can come up for with a theme on my heart: boundaries. This is playing out in my life and around me in so many ways. Last night I watched a show on History about how are state shapes came to be. Those shapes are boundaries. We need them.
I have two kids home full time for summer vacation. One would love to be in the pool 24/7 and the other thinks it would be fine to play video games night and day. This mom had to instill boundaries.
This year I’m taking my writing life up a notch. God directed me towards fiction and I’m diving in. I love it. To be balanced in writing I had to set a boundary to let go of 90% of the blogs I receive in my inbox. I’m part of writing loops that I need to keep to scroll through and learn. The blogs are also over on my Google Reader. It was nothing personal to unsubscribe, but I had to put the boundary in place. Although I don’t read my Google Reader as much, it is there for me to enjoy blog reading. For now, this gives me a balance I need.
Recently our youngest had an appointment to keep her well. I learned things I could change and/or improve on. My husband had a hard time at first because his love language for her is rewarding her with the very thing I have to control. Although his motive is love, there still has to be boundaries. Too much of his giving in that area could be detrimental to her health. Boundaries are essential.
There are so many ways I look around and see lack of boundaries and as freeing as it sounds, the effects are anything but. We can snicker all we want about Anthony Weiner but if he had kept boundaries, he’d still have a job. There would be a lot less STD’s and teen pregnancies if there were boundaries in place. Relationships would be stronger with boundaries.
As I get older I’m putting better boundaries in place. It isn’t popular and it isn’t easy but I find the more I go along with everyone else in an attempt to please, the more out of whack my boundaries become. The results are never good. I’m trying to be more communicative and say how I feel about the situations and what I believe is necessary to keep things healthy.
I don’t have this mastered, not be a long shot. Like I said, it’ s just a theme of sorts I see playing out in my life this summer. I’m guarding boundaries and observing way, WAY too many situations where lack of boundaries is causing all kinds of trouble. It doesn’t have to be that way.
How about you? What role, if any, do boundaries play in your life?
Is there a theme you are seeing for you this summer that you didn’t really plan on?
So glad to see you here today. Have a blessed day!
