Over Labor Day Weekend the man about the house and I invested our time and money into 4 small grape tomato plants. This is our first attempt at vegetable gardening, and we are enjoying the process and eagerly anticipating the first of our fruits in the next couple weeks. There came a point very quickly in their growth that we added a wire cone to keep them inside and use as a support for their tender stalks - we set a boundary for them to protect them.
This is what I have done over the years as a mother of three. Soon into their rearing, boundaries were established for their protection: stay in the yard, look both ways before you cross the street, wear your bike helmet, do your homework before you play with toys (this became difficult to enforce in high school, in fact I gave this one up!). The boundaries were established to help them grow into fruitful young women, similar to my tomato plants.
Now the boundaries are bigger issues: whose car they get into, no passengers other than family for the first 6 months after getting your own license, living within a budget while away at college, and as of yesterday with one turning 21 - don't abuse this privilege. Be careful. Use wisdom.
It's easy for me to see the need for boundaries in others, but I tend to be blind with my own. This is especially true in protecting my schedule from burn out. I discuss it in a response (it's one of the last comments) on a blog of someone I am newly reading (yes, I made myself vulnerable!). I'm trying to make changes in my life with this one. I want to honor God with my resources and time is one of my most valuable commodities. I'm enjoying a new book by Anne Jackson, "Mad Church Disease". It's about the tendency for people involved in ministry to say yes all the time, whether professional or volunteer. It's inspiring me to make some changes, to produce healthy fruit in my life.
Do you find it hard to say no to people?
