{"id":1244,"date":"2019-11-23T04:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2019-11-02T09:41:49","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T14:41:49","slug":"im-thankful-for-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/11\/23\/im-thankful-for-boundaries\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019M THANKFUL FOR BOUNDARIES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cDear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.\u201d 1 John 4:1 CSB<\/a>
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I am thankful for the people in my life who have forced me to set boundaries.\u00a0 These are the people in our lives who push our buttons, the ones who have a knack for ruining our day.\u00a0 But they can only ruin our day if we let them. These are the people we have to establish strong boundaries with in our relationships because otherwise they will steam roll our lives.\u00a0 The pushy neighbor who doesn\u2019t understand just because you\u2019re at home means they can come over, has to be told you love them, but you need some space. The gum cracking office mate who doesn\u2019t understand how annoying it is, you have to negotiate quietness with each day.\u00a0 The family member who cares only about themselves has to be reminded, your life matters too. All of these people give us the opportunity to set healthy boundaries in our life.
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An interesting article, 5 Rules for Setting Boundaries<\/a> in our lives, gives us Biblical insight into how to do it.  First, we reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7-8 NIV<\/a>).  Often we don\u2019t set boundaries because we think we\u2019re helping the person by protecting them from the consequences of their actions.  However, the only way they will grow is if we let them fall. Secondly, actions are what cause people to overstep boundaries. We judge actions, not people, their actions will tell whether they understand our boundaries (John 3:21 NIV<\/a>).  Next, if we\u2019re following the Scriptures we don\u2019t have to feel sorry for setting boundaries (2 Cor. 7:9 NIV<\/a>).  When implement God\u2019s principles into our lives, some people won\u2019t understand those changes, especially if they\u2019re not following God.  We don\u2019t have to feel sorry for them not understanding, instead we can pray that one day they will understand. We can pray one day they will make the same changes in their life for the same reasons we made the changes in ours.  Fourth, healthy boundaries support healthy marriages (Eph. 4:2-3<\/a>).  We have to protect our marriages by spending time with our spouse, working on our relationship, putting it above all others except God.  We have to say no to girls night out so we can say yes to date night in. And lastly, if we haven\u2019t set clear boundaries with people in our lives, we can\u2019t enforce them (Deut. 29:29 NIV<\/a>).  If you don\u2019t tell people what your boundaries are, you can\u2019t expect them to respect them.  You have to communicate clearly what the line is that can\u2019t be crossed, it\u2019s the only way they will know not to cross it.
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If we didn\u2019t have challenging people in our lives, we wouldn\u2019t learn how to set boundaries.  When we learn how to set boundaries, we grow as individuals. We learn to communicate better. We begin to become more self aware as we understand what our needs are and how to set up appropriate boundaries.  We learn to say no to people we need to say no too. Boundaries help us live healthier, fuller lives, as God intended (John 10:10 NIV<\/a>).
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Today I\u2019m thankful for boundaries.  What are you thankful for?
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\u201cDear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.\u201d 1 John 4:1 CSB I am thankful for the people in my life who have forced me to set boundaries.\u00a0 These are the people in our lives… Continue reading I\u2019M THANKFUL FOR BOUNDARIES<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1246,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}