Contentment? Boundaries? Yes!
...I rejoice that things are as they are...
(T.S. Eliot)
Most years I choose a word for the year, something that I want to be a theme word that I can come back to and grow in. (Some years this works out more clearly than others.)
Last year my word was contentment, but I was telling a friend the other day that it probably should have been boundaries, since it feels like 2015 was a year of learning about how to set boundaries on time and commitments, how to say no thoughtfully so that I could say yes intentionally.
The two things aren't so dissimilar, though, and the more I thought about it, they went together well. As I learned to appreciate the boundaries set by being human and having finite time to work with, and only being able to be in one place at a time -- and learned to thank God for that, rather than constantly wishing for more -- I have learned contentment. Not, by any means, perfectly.
But it is a blessing to see how a growing appreciation for the boundaries that I can live well within -- the natural limitations set by being a person and by the personality that I have and by the circumstances of my life -- has brought contentment with it.
So there it is: the curious thought that boundaries and contentment seem to go together quite neatly.
Or, in David's words:
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
You hold my lot.
Surely the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance!
(Psalm 16:5-6)
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