Inspiring – Page 62 – Home's Cool!

Extending Your Boundaries

Posted on February 10, 2011November 13, 2015 by Katharine

padded deck furniture — Padded deck furniture

Look at this dock, extending the fishing surfaces around the pond, into the pond.

Boundaries in life can extend this way, too. When does this happen?

In emergencies. Someone might drive too fast with a passenger who needs medical care. A widow might need to take charge of money she never thought of before. A bystander might direct traffic around an accident, just like a policeman, and with the same success. Anyone could dive into the pond above, to save a life, even if it were posted “no swimming”. It would be the right thing to do.
With maturity. When we learn more, practice more, know more, we can find ourselves freed from old boundaries and invited to do or to enjoy more. Little children would not be safe on the above dock, but older ones who know how to swim can have permission to try it out. It’s a fun, wobbly experience!
On special occasions. We skip diets for weddings. We block streets for parades. We eat with our fingers for bar-b-que. The dock above has had very little people who were non-swimmers on it, sometimes, when grown-ups decided it was okay, and when the little ones held someone’s hand.

So, are your boundaries extended these days? Have you had to extend yourself because of an emergency? Have you “graduated” to a time of fewer restrictions or more privileges? Are you in a special bubble of different boundaries? Look around you and enjoy the stretch.

And catch a few fish, while you’re at it. 🙂

Husbands, Inspiring, Wisdom, Wives

Illegitimate Boundaries

Posted on February 9, 2011November 13, 2015 by Katharine

Bound!

What makes a boundary that is not good?

It comes from someone who is not over you in authority.
It comes from someone who is not heeding his or her authorities.
It takes over an area of your life not under its authority.

First, when someone tries to set boundaries over or around you and is, himself, not your legitimate authority, you need not heed these boundaries. For instance, if someone else’s husband thinks you should wear your hair a certain way, he’s full of beans! Wearing your hair for someone else’s husband is preposterous. The same would go for someone else’s boss. Only your own boss should be able to tell you what to do on the job and when. This really is simple.

Second, if someone is not minding the law or other authorities over him, he may be out of line for telling you what to do. For instance, a policeman who asked you to rob a bank would be too obviously not one to heed. If your boss asked you to vote a certain way on a jury, that would be similar. Any authority who tried to make you break any law would be contemptible.

Third, the particular areas of your life that are yours, alone, do not fall under any other authorities. Your boss, although he is expected to be over you, still cannot tell you how to feed your children, what TV to watch, when to plant your garden, etc., because it is none of his business.

Also, these scenarios are not truly boundaries; they are bondage. Pay attention and learn to tell the difference.

Believe it or not!, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom, Wives, Womanhood

The Boundary Around My Pond

Posted on February 8, 2011November 13, 2015 by Katharine

Another view of the pond — Another view of the icy pond

Boundaries are wonderful. Without them we could not have ponds. No ponds, no fish. Yes, we like boundaries. I think the fish do, too.

One boundary we think we don’t welcome is the womb. Wombs are wonderful. Without them we could not have babies. I think the babies like them, too.

But we ignore what we know is true and we violate that quiet, safe place for our growing babies, every day. Over 3000 times per day. It is impossible to violate our own bodies and our children’s lives the way we do, and still feel human.

Look at this:

In Pennsylvania, they’ve found a physician/abortionist who has made a profession and a large fortune from violating the boundaries of our wombs. How did he do it? By accepting payment in cash, not reporting his earnings, storing his money at home instead of in a bank, not disposing of bio-hazards, not sterilizing equipment, not providing gowns for patients, and barely paying staff.

Oh, and he sold drugs on the side. Cash, only, please.

More than half the people who went into his “clinic” died. You know, all the babies died, and several of the moms, too. It was just like the good ol’ days, minus the coat hanger. “Safe and rare”, my foot.

The only good thing about it, if it can be called good, is the wording the Philadelphia reporter, Stephanie Farr, used as she wrote her detailed report about Dr. Gosnell’s goings on:

“How many severed baby spines does it take to pay for a $984,000 shore house? How many severed infant feet is a boat worth?”

I am glad she said it that way. I don’t know how she had the nerve to write this truth in such big newspaper, nor how she got by with it, but there it was, on the Internet, for all to see. For all to think about. For all to try to grasp.

Not only does abortion mistreat women; it mistreats babies, violates wombs, ignores boundaries.

And it can turn us into monsters.

Inspiring, Wisdom, Womanhood

Weekly Photo Challenge: Boundaries

Posted on February 6, 2011November 13, 2015 by Katharine

Boundaries occur everywhere and they are good. Think of a horse or a toddler without a fence. Think of a dog without rules. Think of your bank account without a PIN. We love these boundaries and use them to the fullest.

We agree with boundaries for others, but for some reason, we cannot reconcile ourselves with boundaries for self. Think of the red light runners. Think of all the overdrawn bank accounts. Think of overweight. We refuse to see the good in boundaries and quickly shrug them when they are imposed upon self.

People who ruin lives overeating, overspending, and running red lights probably would tell you the boundaries are good, but . . . deep down we hope some other rule cancels the ones we don’t like. A friend once actually told me eating cheese with apple pie will cancel the calories in the pie. Another friend told me she divorced her husband because, “divorce is too easy these days.” That’s a reason?

Actually, marriage used to be a boundary for most people. It kept the rightful spouses in and pretenders and diseases out, a good thing. These days, we’re so used to tossing boundaries for perceived convenience, we fall in and out of love, marriage, and all other “affairs” at the blink of an eye.

Do not get me wrong. I do not think every obese, broke, divorced person who accidentally wrecked while running a red light is bad.

I just think with so many, it may be a trend. Just look at all the boundaries and rules we ignore, and their resulting ruinous counterparts:

1. Marriage–divorce
2. Pregnancy–abortion
3. Motherhood–day care
4. Budgeting–bankruptcy
5. Contentment–stress
6. Cooking–eating out
7. Seatbelt and texting laws–funerals

This incomplete list shows how all-encompassing the problem is.

Let’s each work to shorten this list, to add a few more boundaries to our lives.

Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scriptures – 5

Posted on February 6, 2011February 6, 2011 by Katharine

Boundaries.

The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:16-17 NIV

Blessings of Habit, Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom

Saturday Sayings – 5

Posted on February 5, 2011August 14, 2011 by Katharine

1. The future belongs to those who will work for it.

2. The best thing you can spend on your children is time.

3. The only thing left after fire is the stuff you gave away. –Nan Snider

4. Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.

5. A ship is safe in the harbor, but that isn’t what ships were built for.

The first Don’t Walk sign began operation on this date in 1952. 🙂

Blessings of Habit, Husbands, Inspiring, Wisdom, Wives

Why not Date?

Posted on February 4, 2011March 15, 2014 by Katharine

: Classic “one-knee” proposal, ca. 1815 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why not Date?

Of course, God must have had some reason for causing us to be male and female, yet also programming us to hesitate, to want to do it right, to hate divorce just as He does. What gives?

God set up the whole marriage relationship as a picture, a sort of parable, of perfection in relationship. You have to admit, when male/female relationships are going right, it can be heavenly, right? And when it all goes south, well . . .

Facts are, God is all about loving relationship. He says He IS love. He is a relationship. Love is everything. Love is all you need. And almost every problem on earth is a relationship problem.

Marriage is so important to God. He set up everything in His kingdom with the idea in mind of it being like a marriage. (Or maybe marriage is like His kingdom?) In fact, in all of His creation, out of all the things He created, there was only one thing He said was not good: That man should be alone, single. Man could never picture Heavenly things if He had no counterpart, no one to love, no one to become one with and be fruitful with.

But what is dating? Is it a loving thing? Or is it using someone just to have a good time? Or is it pretending to be married? Are we fools?

The Bible speaks of only two types of relationships between unmarried, non-familial men and women. One is betrothal. The other is over-anxious, questionable men hanging around loose women.

Guess which one we practice these days?

Differences Between A Boyfriend/Girlfriend Relationship and Biblical Courtship

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