Beautiful Boundaries...

Hi friends,

As I've been reading through the Bible this year I've read through the sections where land was given to the twelve tribes of Israel. It can be easy to skip through these parts, wondering about the relevance of the various different boundaries and city allocations for ancient tribes! But as I was reading, a verse from Psalm 16:6 came to mind: 'The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful (or beautiful) inheritance.'

 

As I was journaling about boundary lines I began to think about boundaries in our lives. There were three thoughts that resonated with me. Firstly, we need to recognise the boundaries we have been given. So often trouble comes because we don't know or accept the boundaries God has given us: we want to wander outside of them and set our own parameters on life. But like the tribes of Israel, God has given us an inheritance of beautiful gifts and that inheritance has boundaries - not physical ones like rivers or fences, but other types of limits. These may be moral boundaries, gifting limitations, selected relationships, financial parameters... and others. Our responsibility is to recognise these boundaries, and then to cultivate gratitude for what God has blessed us with. This is the 'pleasant' and 'delightful' part! If we focus on the goodness of God's provision within the boundaries He has set, we are less likely to look longingly into someone else's field or go wandering where we shouldn't (whether with our mind, eyes or body!).

The final thought about boundaries has resonated with me personally, and that is about how we guard the boundary lines of our lives. Sometimes we allow others to trample through our inheritance or we invite unhelpful or harmful elements into the space of our lives. It is our responsibility to protect that which God has entrusted to us and sometimes that involves saying 'no' to things that try and violate the boundaries of our lives. Saying 'no' is often not easy, because we don't want to let people down or offend others, but it is an important word in living responsibly within our delightful inheritance.

As my photos have shown, I had fun with my Distress Oxide inks on these pages, using stencilling and sponging techniques to create backgrounds. I then stamped the text using a combination of alphabet stamp sets, and added the wildflowers using Nature Silhouettes. Here are some of the sets I used:

I hope these thoughts on boundaries which have challenged me, may encourage or challenge you as you consider the beautiful inheritance you have been given in Christ.

x Amy x