Boundaries Abounding

I have been trying to spend an hour in the garden on most days; with a 6 month old and a job, this may or may not happen as planned. But I look forward to putting Will down for his first nap of the day and heading out to the garden while it is still "cool" outside.

I have been trying to turn the patch of grass behind the house into dirt where I can plant my little seedlings. And let me just tell you how hard that is! I can see why we use grass as a ground cover - it's roots are thick and it will grow and grow and grow...and, well, grow!

At the rate I am moving I will have the plot ready to plant in November, but I will have some great looking biceps! Fighting the grass has turned me onto a little something important for all of our lives...boundaries.

3 Reasons I need boundaries in my garden:

1: If the grass is too close to where I am going to plant, I won't be able to rip it out without hurting the tender little roots of my seedlings.
2: Because grass is so good at covering ground, it won't be long before it creeps back into the areas from which I have already removed it.
3: The grass could suck all the nutrients out of the ground and keep my veggies from ever producing.

Without clearly defined boundaries in the garden, I can't see when the grass is coming back into areas I have already worked into dirt. I need a buffer zone of dirt between the grass and my plants, so I can see the grass in time to cut it back.

It is the same with sin in our lives. Say for example we are not committing a particular sin anymore, but we are still wound up in the lifestyle that promotes its growth, we will never be able to grow into the new things God has for us. Without clear boundaries we won't be able to see when that sin starts creeping back into our lives.

Separating ourselves from sin is a very important part of our Christian walk...and honestly this can be the most difficult part because it requires us to make sacrifices. We will have to stop hanging out with certain people that continue to practice the sin we are trying to be free from, stop eating at certain restaurants that tempt us to overindulge, maybe even stop watching a particular type of movie that has bad language or is full of violence, this principle applies to so many things.

But what are those sacrifices when compared to the fact that Jesus gave his life for us? He already paid the price of death for those sins, even the ones we still commit, and the only thing he is asking us to do is clean house. We need to create a set of boundaries so that we can identify sin as it starts to slither back into our lives. Without boundaries it is hard to see right from wrong, and it is hard not to hurt the good things when you have to rip out the bad.

Another difficult thing is that grass isn't always bad. I like it in the yard. It keeps the yard from getting muddy when it rains, it hides all the rocks, and is pretty when it is trimmed up. But, I can't have it in my garden because it will kill the plants. So some things fall into a gray area, they aren't inherently bad when they are in the right place, but if they start creeping into every area of our lives they can choke the life out of the good things.

Let's take a look at our lives this week and see if we need to establish a set of boundaries, or if we need to do some weeding in areas we have stopped tending. God will show us what we need to do.He is faithful and true. I love you guys!