CozyNet Blog

Setting Boundaries

I was recently inspired on setting boundaries in my daily activities for a spiritual purpose to allow for spaces thru out the day to reflect, pray, and meditate on bible scripture and such so that it would have a more sustaining presence instead of dissipating before the end of the week.

One of the boundaries I set was a curfew, cutting off my computer at 7PM with few exceptions. This has opened up my evenings to be able to read again, whereas before I would frequently use the time to tinker around.

During the afternoons at work, I now take a 15 minute prayer walk in the back rooms shortly after lunch if nothing else is going on that demands my attention. I do the same in the mornings too, shortly after arriving at the office. I wish my mornings were slow going and easy, but when I wake up early in the morning, it's a constant whirl of activity until I make it to the office, so a 15 minute walk before starting the work day is a good routine to get my head back on straight to say the least.

During these times, I try to forget and let go of everything that might have me tied down or worked up, which isn't always that simple; but all it takes is 15 minutes then after that I can go back to mulling over whatever was distracting me. Typically this is just enough to reorient my mind.

There are a few other areas too where I've been attempting to place boundaries. I've been working back toward 10PM as my bed time, which I use to be very consistent about. Of late, I've been turning in around 12 to 12:30AM in the morning, then waking up at 6AM for work which isn't enough rest. After some close analyzing, I realized this happens because I'm trying to cram everything that needs to get done late into the day after work; this means tending the lawn, tending to the house in keeping it clean, tending to the animals, cooking supper, washing dishes, shopping for groceries, filling out and paying bills, checking the post office mailbox, etc. All of these chores can take up a considerable amount of time that encroaches into my rest which then effects my mood for the next day.

When I'm grouchy, I get cynical, despairing, and prone to talking trash. I've been forcing a filter over my mouth to prevent it, but when it gets late into the evening, I lose my grip. Filters aren't enough and temporary at best, so I have to look to the root of the problem which is not getting enough rest. A 10PM bed time to address this problem would be great, except that I need the last few hours of the evening till midnight just to get all my chores done. To address this dilemma, I realized I needed to improve the efficiency of my routines.

This meant buying a lawn mower to mow the yard within an hour instead of spending all day with the push mower. Buying a washer and dryer instead of spending half the weekend doing the laundry at my parents. Tilling up patches of the yard and growing sunflowers in them where I was spending all evening long trying to tame a never ending supply of sandburs.

Sandburs are evil little plants!

This is my first week of making these adjustments and there's still more to go, but the aim here isn't merely for convenience or an efficient lifestyle. Rather, it's toward a spiritual kingdom purpose like I said in the beginning of this blog post. It's easy to forget that purpose when swamped with work and distraction, and so the Word will spill out no sooner than it's received unless there are boundaries put in place to retain it while keeping the distractions at bay. The focus and center of my life shouldn't revolve around my work, chores, worldly riches, or even personal ambitions. Apart from God, all of the things I do are in vain and ultimately pointless; or that's at least the mindset I should have about it. The goal is to build up His kingdom not for my life alone, but in others too, so if I'm busy over here or over there distracted by doing whatever I please, then I've lost site of the mission by only serving myself and the Word will have no effect in my life.

Fortunately I'm in a position financially speaking where I can afford these tools, otherwise it would be irresponsible of me to continue in home ownership at this point in my life. Sometimes I do feel like it was irresponsible of me to take on buying this property to restore, but at the same time I have faith that I was brought here not to merely restore it, but to also be restored as well because I was only wasting away in my apartment with nothing to do.

Over the next few weeks here as I readjust, my weekly schedule should become more opened. I've been wanting to work with some friends that are interested in making repairs to my house who need the money and will considerably speed up the process. I should also have the time to better establish a prayer life and bible study throughout the week which as of now has been inconsistent.

That's all I have to share on the subject. I'll might write on it sometime in the future just to recap on how things are going.

Thanks for reading my blog!