Today was one of those days when we had a Sunday School lesson that was too awesome not to share. It was about boundaries. The limits set, maybe by a government for the people, maybe by a person for them self, it could be anything. But the part that really hit home was why we need them ( and why we need to stick with them). Doug told us many times that the big decisions (if there really is such a thing as a big decision) aren’t what are important. It’s the little decisions. When faced with a big decision – say which college to attend - we are more likely to weigh our options, look for pros and cons, think it through, and usually make the best possible decision. But the little decisions that lead up to those are what we need to watch out for. Will we study for that test or let it slide? Will we procrastinate with homework or do it on time? Will we try to memorize facts and dates or really attempt to learn it? It’s these things that eventually add up to at least partially making the decision for us.

Little decisions. Things we face every day. How do we deal with these? That’s where boundaries come in. We set those boundaries to help us secure our goals. Setting boundaries like “I won’t watch TV until my homework is done” or “I’ll never turn a homework assignment in late in math class” will dictate how we handle small decisions, and eventually help us make good big decisions.

Changes in boundaries: Our boundaries sometimes change. This might be good or bad – it could even be a result of having met the goal (such as successfully choosing a college). But in many cases this is because we are shifting our point of view. We make very small changes in our life, and without realizing it readjust our thinking, until we’ve drifted so far from our initial goal we aren’t sure how to get back. This is why it’s important to consistently evaluate where we are and teach ourselves to realize when we start pushing our boundaries. Then, before we change them, we think about why we are changing our boundaries.

There are lots of boundaries people should think about setting. Spiritual, financial, health-related, alcohol and drug use, academics, friends, dating, what kinds of media we expose ourselves to, the list goes on and on. Hopefully this helps some people consider where their boundaries are.

There are also some scriptrues Doug directed us to meditae on as we create these boundaries for ourselves:

Ok, so that’s basically summarizing two lessons into one short blog. If you have any questions or wish for me to elaborate, please let me know.

God bless,

tori