“First seek the counsel of the Lord.”
(1 Kings 22:5 NIV)
Boundaries
How to Set Them—How to Keep Them
June Hunt
Is your life really your life or is it controlled by someone else? Is your time really your time or is it manipulated by someone else? Is your schedule really your schedule or is it dictated by someone else? If your response is, “That’s me!” then you need boundaries.
Do you say yes to everyone and no to no one? Do you find yourself easily taken advantage of? Do you have to grease every squeaky wheel? If so, then you need boundaries.
Are there not enough hours in the day to do all you have to do? Are you feeling stretched beyond your limits? Are you meeting yourself coming and going? If so, then you need boundaries.
Do you try to be everything to everyone? Do you think everyone’s need is your need to meet? Is your life swallowed up in someone else’s life? If so, then you need boundaries.
Are you overcommitted, in over your head, burning the candle at both ends? Do you try to please everyone, yet often please no one? If so, then you need boundaries.
You need to know where your responsibilities end and someone else’s begin. You need to say yes to God and no to everything that’s not His will. You need … boundaries!
Like nations, relationships rise and fall based on the boundaries that guard and protect them. If we try to be everyone’s best friend, we will be no one’s best friend. We all have limits on our time and on our emotional and physical energy.
We cannot be or do everything for anyone, much less everyone, so we must choose who we will be and what we will do regarding the individuals God brings into our lives. Jesus established boundaries for His relationships by … prioritizing the Father … discipling the twelve … and being intimate with the few. He also set boundaries on His actions.…
“Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.… By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
(John 5:19, 30)
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