Boundaries. | A Weekly Word 2022
There is no healing without boundaries. Boundaries help us to set limits around our participation in relationships and activities, they protect our time and energy, and they promote peace in our lives.
A critical boundary that I have set in recent years, is the one around my relationship with God. Creating this boundary provides the space and time for me to meet with my Creator daily. The framework of Love, Maaden – Love God. Love self. Love others. – is based on the truth that our relationship with God serves as a model for our relationship with ourselves (read more on that in this post from last year). So by focusing on my relationship with God, I am also learning how to better my relationship with me.
Jesus set boundaries. Luke records that, “while the news about him spread all the more, and crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses, Jesus often withdrew to isolated places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16) Christ himself preached the importance of dedicated time with God, “But when you pray,” He said, “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” (Matthew 6:6) This instruction to create boundaries not just around our time and priorities, but physical ones as well, is something to consider whether it’s time spent with God, prioritizing your passion project, or a commitment to focusing on self care.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawwab was one my top reads from last year, and helped me to reset some of my practices around family, work, and more. I recommend that you take a listen (it’s always going to be Audible for me!) and then grab it in hard copy as well, because it’s definitely the type of book that will serve as a resource to come back to. And for those of us wanting to do some deeper work in this area, she’s also developed a corresponding workbook that I plan to check out.
The beautiful thing about this practice is that, whether we seek out the additional tools or not, we can all set intentions around this almost immediately. My word for 2022 is “still” and I look forward to learning what better boundaries around my time and busy-ness will help me to uncover in the months ahead!
Love, Maaden
Passage
“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from evil.”
Matthew 5:37
Prayer
God, thank you for being so powerful and so sovereign, yet experiencing a humble human existence in the form of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might learn from and model our lives after yours. Thank you for telling us – and showing us – how to practice integrity and set boundaries around our relationship with You. Help me to discern how best to protect my time and energy, and allow me to communicate that with others in a way that is both clear and effective. Allow me to learn how to honor myself, by how I practice honoring You. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Practice
This week, I will determine one healthy boundary around a relationship – or an activity – that I’d like to protect. I will write this boundary down in a place where I can first reflect on it, before putting it into practice or expressing it to others.