NO: THE BOUNDARY MAKER

By Arianne Christina Price

Growing up my dad always told me that the mission of this Christian Walk is to know God first, put God first and to keep God first. Knowing God first and putting God first are achieved early on in this Walk. However, keeping God first is a whole ‘nother story.

The goal of this fallen world is to distract your attention away from God as often as humanly possible. Unfortunately, many of our personal relationships play a role in this mass distraction. The ONLY way you will be able to live this life keeping God first is to create and respect boundaries in all of your personal relationships. When you have no boundaries in your life you have no protection. Boundaries are like fences: they keep people and things in your life that you want in, and keep things out that you want out. Many people are afraid to set boundaries because they think they will offend or anger someone. We MUST remember that we are called by God to follow Jesus and walk in wisdom. We are not called or required to let other people dictate to us what we must do in order to keep them happy.

Listen, I know we want to make people happy and we should the Bible says in Hebrews 13:16 that we should “make sacrifices to do good” and share with others, I’m not discounting that. But it is not to be taken out of context or applied in an INBALANCED type of way. Without boundaries, life gets very complicated, becoming a mixed up brew of no restraints, no guidelines and no protection.

Here’s a quick boundary quiz:

1.Do you often feel overworked, overwhelmed and overused in your personal relationships?

2.Do you often find yourself feeling taken advantage of or doing things you really don’t want to do?

3.Do you find it difficult, scary or even frustrating saying the word ‘no’?

4.Do you often overbook yourself making your schedule hectic, jamm packed and often missing important appointments and/or events?

5.Do you often find yourself neglecting your own wants, needs and desires to fulfill the expectations of someone else?

*If you answer ‘yes’ to 3 or more of these questions then you need to establish some boundaries.

Q: How do we begin to create boundaries?
A: By using: “NO: The Boundary Maker.”

Child of God, did you know that when you say yes to everything all the time you become a poor steward over your own life in the eyes of God. Something can be good, needed and worthy of attention and still ‘NO’ may be your appropriate answer. Not saying No enough leaves you frustrated, depleted and overwhelmed with unnecessary things. One word ‘no’ spoken into the atmosphere immediately sets you free from: stress, unnecessary demands, resentment & unwanted obligations.

Saying no means that you accept the fact that you cannot make up for other peoples’: disobedience, lack of discipline, wastefulness, misbehavior or poor planning. Real love allows people to get themselves out of a bind every now & then.. That’s why some people never grow up b/c we are reinforcing their dependencies by not saying ‘no’ enough!!!

Why is it so hard for us to say ‘no’?

Next time we will explore the main reasons it can be hard to say ‘no’ which include: discomfort, fear, insecurity, spiritual immaturity and imbalanced thinking. Establishing proper boundaries takes time; the protection, productivity and peace you gain is more than worth it. “No”: the little word that makes a BIG impact.

Peace & Increase

“The Prophetic Princess”

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