God cares about how you carry your life. In this episode, I’m sharing nine boundaries every woman needs to set to protect her peace, time, energy, and purpose. Simple, practical, and doable. Choose one and start this week.
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Hey, winning women. Welcome back to another episode. I'm so glad that you're here. So I want to paint a picture for you. And as you listen to this, I want you to think about if this sounds a little bit like your life or which one of these sounds more like your day. OK, so you wake up in the morning and you open your eyes, obviously, because the alarm is probably going off for like the 10th time. And your phone is the first thing you reach for because you probably have to turn your alarm off.
But when you pick up your phone, you do notice the notifications came in throughout the night. They're kind of stacked up, but you just ignore it. And the message keeps coming up. But it's OK, because if you're like me, the first thing you have to do is probably go pee. So you go pee. Maybe you wash your face, you brush your teeth, you get back up. And from there, your day begins. The house may still be sleeping. You may live alone. You may have kids. You may have gotten up to get some work done. But you have started your day. Now, from there, your day becomes.
like constant switching. So while you're cooking breakfast, your answering text messages, maybe you got on social media, a lot of things happened overnight. So you're kind of just scrolling and catching up on things. You're getting dressed. You're skimming through emails or messages or notifications. You're trying to focus, but the notifications keep popping up. You tell yourself, you know, I'm going to handle it later. I'm going to get back to that person. Now your day goes on by evening. You are tired, sis. You are tired. Your body is tired. Your patience is thin.
Dinner is probably happening, but at this point if you have kids, maybe you're taking out your frustration on them. If you are married, maybe your spouse gets a little edgier side of you and you're still mentally trying to solve problems and be present whether that is with friends, with your family. So at the end of the day, God willing you finally sit down and you sit down. It is time to rest, but your mind just keeps.
Many of this sounds familiar. One, you're not alone. That's actually probably a picture more of like what my day sounds like. But I want you to know how to think of another type of date. And this could be you too. So you open your eyes, obviously turn the alarm off, except this time you don't reach directly for your phone. You probably wake up and pee and you wash your face. You brush your teeth. You just do everything that you need to do. Once again, your phone is not in reach and has not been picked up yet.
Jennifer Parr (:only to turn the alarm off. And even if it's just for a few minutes, you start your day with just a sense of direction. Now, throughout your day, you get messages, you get notifications, you get all the things, but you check what matters most and then you step into everything else. And as your day moves along, once again, messages probably still continue to come in. Spam calls continue to come in, all the things, you're still distracted, but you respond in windows and you let some time wait. You stay focused on what's in front of you, whether that is your kids, whether that is work.
Whether that is whatever it is you're working on, but you can manage your home. You can run errands. You can handle responsibilities. You may not get back to people as quickly as they would like for you to, but you still feel like you're living your day instead of being chased by it. Dinner comes around. Your phone is actually out of reach at this point. So that way you can listen. You can laugh. You can look people in the eye without your attention being split.
And when your day ends, your mind is actually allowed to slow down. If this is you, first off, I want to applaud you, but I also want you to know that this is what life looks like. Not because you have achieved peace, not because you don't have anything to do, not because you are bored, but the difference between both scenarios is one thing, and that's boundaries. So today we're going to talk about boundaries. Actually, nine boundaries that I learned
in a season where I struggled, I struggled to set boundaries. And as a result, I was constantly drained, not physically drained, but emotionally drained. And so I want to talk about nine boundaries that I feel like every woman needs, every woman needs in her life, no matter if you're single, if you're married, if you're a mom, if you're widowed, every woman needs these boundaries to protect your time, to protect your attention, your relationships, and even the calling that God has on your life. So I'm going to dive right into these. You may want to
keep a notepad or make a list of them. But the first one is work boundaries. Now this applies to work both inside and outside of the home. And I actually think this boundary is specifically important for those who work inside the home because that work can seem like it never ends. I always say this, that I felt like when I left corporate America, I worked 10 times harder. I know that sounds weird, but I worked so many hours at corporate America going to work every day over 45 hours a week. But when I came home, that work...
Jennifer Parr (:never ended. Now that's probably a topic for another day, but let's talk about how to set healthy work hour boundaries. Now it's important to know that work needs a defined start and stop so that it does not consume your entire life. And when I think of how God designed the rhythm for life, Ecclesiastes 3.1 comes to mind and that's where I believe Solomon says, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
In this scripture, Solomon is describing a structure that is being built and there's a time to plant. He says there's a time to build, but then there's a time to uproot. These two things don't always happen in the same season. They don't always happen at the same time. And overall, what he is saying is that work was never meant to stretch endlessly. Exodus 29 talks about the Sabbath and how God commanded the sixth day of labor.
and for one to rest. Now, yes, that Sabbath was like a mandate to protect his people, but it created margin. If God created boundaries and if God created margin, we probably should too. Like there's probably something good to that. When I worked outside of the home, I worked at a job that was in corporate and I had a commute and I would work and I would come home, but
because I was working so much, not just in the office, but oftentimes when I would get home or the kids would go to sleep, I would respond back to a few more emails. I would just kind of go through my checklist to see what I hadn't gotten to that day and try to get it done. And I realized that in that season, one, the kids were always being picked up.
late from daycare. Like our daycare closed at 630 and I was rolling up at like 631. Like lights were off. They had our kids out there looking like mommy where are you? And every day I was rushing home to pick them up. Now my husband he also worked outside the home but there was a season where he was no longer teaching at the high school and we had a math doing business. So while he was home he was still working was not always available. So kids were picked up late. Dinner was like fast food. I mean dinner was like
Jennifer Parr (:what was open, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, we would just pick it up on the way home. Half the times the kids ate in the car, so that made my car always a mess. And then when we got home, the nighttime routine started, and that was taking a bath, brushing their teeth, and then off to bed. So the biggest thing that really broke my heart in this season was the mommy guilt. I had mommy guilt big time because I felt like I just, there wasn't enough time in the day for me to spend with my kids that was not hurry time. Everything felt.
everything felt rushed, everything felt like we have to be on this schedule, right? And I had so much resentment in my heart during that season, not because of my husband, not because of work, but simply because I was unable to set healthy boundaries around work. And so if you struggle with setting healthy boundaries around work, and once again, I'm talking to the women who may not be working in this season.
Work is also inside the home, just taking care of what's around you. define when work starts and when it ends. It's okay to go to bed with dishes in the sink. I know for some of the OCD women that's like, no, I don't want to wake up to a dirty sink. Then don't. But if there are some days that you are absolutely exhausted, it is okay. It is okay to leave some things undone so that you can actually close your day.
I also think it's healthy to just not check work emails after a certain hour. I used to fall into this trap where I would write the email and then would send in the morning, but I was still working. I could do that same email in the morning. And then another thing is that I recommend no quick tasks during family dinner or just during dinner at all. Dinner should be your peace of mind. Dinner should not be you eating with a fork in one hand and your phone in the other.
Shut it down so that your mental space is clear while you are enjoying the food that you have worked so hard to be able to provide for yourself or for your family. For the women who work inside the home, I would recommend those same things, except it might look a little bit different. So create defined work blocks. Like for me, I have a defined work block where I do laundry. Now, speaking about laundry, I may do laundry, but I do not always fold the clothes. I can wash them, but I don't always fold them. So
Jennifer Parr (:I've now had to create work blocks around when I wash and then when I fold because if not, the laundry does not get done. Lately, I've tried to have dinner plans ready by 12 noon. It doesn't mean dinner is cooked, but at least I know what we're having for dinner. So if I have to bring out the meat, it's out by 12. Or if I have to prep something to make dinner, I'm doing all that prep work by noon or one so that when I have to cook it later on, it's just so much easier.
I also think it's important to build a daily reset instead of being in like constant maintenance. So instead of cleaning all day or like you have a day where you do deep clean, which that may work for you, do a 20 minute reset and clean for 20 minutes, stop and do something else. Clean for 20 minutes and this keeps you from living in that constant cleaning mode all day. Cause you will always find something to clean in the house.
The next thing is mental boundaries. This is still around work boundaries, but I want you to understand that for those women who work inside the home, when you sit down to rest, refuse to mentally reorganize closets. Like you may be sitting down, but you're thinking about the closet or the meal plan, or you're replaying unfinished tasks in your mind. If needed, just write it down. Use a parking lot. That's what I use in my phone and just come back to it tomorrow. So
All these boundaries when it comes to work, whether inside or outside the home, protect your energy and they protect your peace of mind. So now having these time boundaries will shape your external schedule. Now let's talk about what shapes your internal world. What's going on inside of you. And I think the next boundary is social media boundaries. This affects us internally more than we realize. now social media is only one slice. The bigger picture is that
The typical Internet user that means you are online for something throughout your day. The typical human is online for an average of six hours and 40 minutes a day. Now, for teens, this number like skyrockets. It's like eight hours a day, which I don't know how that's even possible if they're like in school for eight hours. But anyways, we have a consuming problem as kids, as teens, as adults, as women, as humans. And so a social media boundary, I think, is a
Jennifer Parr (:very, very important boundary to have because when social media boundaries are not set and you give yourself free access to social media, which it is always going to be there, your mood shifts with engagement. Like, have you noticed that when you don't have boundaries around your social media use, your emotional temperature, like the way you feel, you start getting tied to what happens on the screen instead of what's in front of you. And the scary part is how this subtly builds to where it starts as a post, it starts as like 15 minutes and next thing you know,
Your screen time for the day is six hours and 20 minutes. Another thing that I've noticed that when you don't have healthy social media boundaries, then comparison becomes very prevalent. The seasons where I struggle with comparison the most is where I am the most active on social media. So comparison doesn't always show up like, I'm jealous of this person or I want what this person has. But sometimes it just shows up as dissatisfaction. Like you may be happy with your life and then you go online and you see someone else's life and you're like,
Now I'm not happy with my life anymore. Or you scroll and suddenly what you had, what you were proud of, now you just don't feel as grateful for it or it just feels small. This happens in the way we feel about our bodies. This happens to the way we feel about our home, our marriage. Sometimes even your parenting styles. I know I follow a lot of parenting accounts. Your finances, your progress. You see these highlight reels and it creates just like a quiet pressure.
And finally, if you don't set social media boundaries, then I do think that validation becomes very, very addictive. What does that mean? That means that now we start to look for validation from the world. We start to look for validation from social media instead of validation from God and validation from people who it really matters from. So when this boundary is missing, when it comes to social media, your brain starts craving the feeling.
that comes from attention or it comes from approval or it comes from being noticed. So keep these in mind. Just make a note of how your social media could be affecting the peace in your life. Set healthy boundaries around that. These are some things that I have done to help limit my social media and set healthy boundaries in this space. And that is I try not to scroll on social media before I open my Bible. Now, whether I'm opening my Bible or I'm listening to my Bible, if I start scrolling,
Jennifer Parr (:I will never get to that Bible study. I will never get to that devotional. I'll just keep scrolling. I've also set time limits throughout my day so that once that time limit is up, I can no longer go on social media. I unfollow accounts that trigger insecurity. This could be a friend of mine, but if her accounts is triggering something in me that's not healthy, it has absolutely nothing to do with her. It has nothing to do with her post. I have work to do.
In order for me to do work, I cannot continue to see those type of posts. So I will unfollow or block certain accounts if I'm going through a season where I'm struggling. There was a season that I was really, really, really, really struggling with the desire to grow our family. is something that I still have a desire for. But for a while, I could not follow accounts that triggered that emotion in me. Once again, they created good content, but I had to set that boundary because I knew I was healing and going through a lot of grief.
a lot of anger in that season. was angry at God. I was upset at myself. Sometimes I was upset at Alan, even though he didn't really do anything. So I just had to set a healthy boundary to unfollow accounts that trigger that type of insecurity in that season. And then finally, I would say, just be careful about posting for validation. I know it's easy to post that post when you look good. You feel good. You just did a workout. Maybe you got your makeup done. Great. But if you post that and you are posting for validation and it doesn't give you the validation you're looking for, it can
easily send you down a road of not feeling confident, not feeling worthy, or doing more, showing more, presenting yourself in a different way online that is just not authentic. So keep that in mind, set healthy social media boundaries. And I think if you do so, it's going to protect your identity more than anything. So work boundaries protect your time. Social media boundaries protect your identity because now you're rooted in Christ and not what the world thinks of you. So social media is one part of our digital life.
Access to you is another and this is the third boundary and that is technology access boundaries. Now, what does this mean? How is this different from social media? This is different because this controls when and how people can reach you Technology boundaries are slightly different because you need to find spaces where you are not constantly reachable now for those of you who know me, you know that I am constantly
Jennifer Parr (:responding back to text messages late. Sometimes it's intentional, but sometimes it really is a result of me setting a boundary where I'm working and I don't give people access to me when I'm working. Has nothing to do with them. It's because I get easily distracted. So my phone most of the time is on Do Not Disturb and there's only about three people who can reach me when it is on Do Not Disturb. And those three people are people who don't typically reach me unless it's like an emergency or they have something to say. And then obviously my husband who
reach me any time of day. When you don't have technology access boundaries, meaning how reachable you are, then you live in constant interruption. Like people have access to you all the time. Now, I do appreciate my friends who always get back to me in a very timely manner. My sister is one of them. And I love that because when I send her a text, I know I will hear from her within the next five or 10 minutes. And even if I do hear from her and she's busy, she'll let me know she got it. That's great. That works for her. That does not work.
me. So I have to set boundaries to where people can reach me and when they reach me I get back to them but if they reach me at a time where I'm not reachable I'll have to get back to them at a time when I am. Also if you don't set this boundary your nervous system never really settles and you are always reachable which maybe some seasons that works but you cannot always be reachable to everyone right. So one thing that has helped so one thing that has so a few things that have helped me in this area is that I use do not disturb
In the mornings, I use it at nights after a certain time. I actually use it during dinner because once again, I'm just easily distracted. But another thing that I would recommend is to keep your phone out of the bedroom if you can. I know that that may not be possible, but if it's in the bedroom, just put it on Do Not Disturb so that you can focus on one your piece. But I think if you're a married couple, your bedroom should really be a sacred space. It should be a space where you connect with your spouse.
Not being in the bed with your spouse and y'all are both on your phones. That's just that's not connecting. I'm sorry. I just don't believe that that is connecting. Also, for those who respond back to Texas very quickly, one, I admire you and low key envy you, but that's OK. But I think that it is OK to not respond immediately to every text.
Jennifer Parr (:There is a sense of pride that comes with being reachable and knowing that when people reach out to you, you respond because it presents you in a sense that you are reliable and you probably are. But once again, it is OK to not respond immediately to every text because it also lets people know that you are not always reachable and the things that have your attention deserve your attention in that moment.
So your work boundary protects your time. Social media protects your identity, being rooted in Christ, not the world. And time access and technology access boundaries help protect your nervous system and it protects your attention. So we are moving along. The fourth boundary is friendship boundaries. So now let me clarify. When I say friendship boundaries, this is the emotional expectations that we have in relationships. I think of Proverbs 13, 20, and that reminds us that
who we walk with shapes who we become. Healthy friends can equate to a healthy life. When you don't have healthy friendship boundaries, then you become the emotional caretaker in every relationship or in most of your relationships. Also, I do see that when people don't set healthy friendship boundaries, then gossip is actually a part of your everyday life. It's normalized so much that you don't even realize you are at the center of gossip or gossip tends to follow you because
of having unhealthy friendship boundaries. Also, quietly resentment can start to build because you are that friend or you compare what you do for others and that defines your friendship. just decline gossip participation. say this because one, gossip is not good for anybody. But I think that when you have tension in friendships and you're not sure whether or not you need to set a boundary, it's important to address the tension directly. Don't go around it. Don't give people the silent treatment. When
you feel the time is right, address that tension. And then finally, when it comes to friendship boundaries, stop carrying problems that are not yours to solve. Not everything is meant for you to solve. Sometimes God is working in people's lives and he's doing far more work than you will ever be able to do or far more work just because he has direct access to our hearts. So now, friendships is one boundary and friendships are chosen relationships.
Jennifer Parr (:family relationships can be a little bit more complicated. And that is the next boundary I'm going to talk about is family boundaries. Okay, so this is a hard one because being Sierra Leone and in Nigerian, family is everything. Family is everything to me. And having to set family boundaries is something that I really, really, really, really struggled with. I think if you love your family, you love your in-laws, you have
a healthy family dynamic, this is going to be a very hard boundary to set and is probably going to be the one that you struggle with the most. I have an amazing set of in-laws and their family, and then I have my family as well. Now, my family, we are always in a group chat. We're always staying connected. We are always chatting. My in-laws, we may not always chat as much, but we love getting together in person. So when extended family or direct family boundaries are not set,
what can happen is sometimes there's a little bit of confusion when it comes to decision making. This could come in the form of advice, or I'm just giving you advice, or Jennifer, if I were you, I would do this, or Jennifer, have you thought about this? Like, family, they always mean well, I think they want the best for us, but we have to be careful with how much of their perception we invite into our minds, invite into our hearts, and invite into decision making.
Even small things can become stressful. That's holidays, that's parenting choices, that's money decisions, school choices, how we spend holidays and weekends, how we discipline our kids. mean, when this boundary is missing, it can feel like everyone is holding a vote into your life and you are stuck trying to keep the peace. Let me say that again. Everyone is holding a vote in your life and you are stuck trying to keep the peace. And this will happen if you do not set
extended family and direct family boundaries. Another consequence of this is divided loyalty. This is the big one. You don't set this boundary. I think that you will have tension in your marriage. And when extended family has too much influence and it creates friction between spouses naturally. When Alan and I are going through seasons or going through a tough decision that we're having to make, when we invite our family into it, it is often after we have resolved it.
Jennifer Parr (:after we have talked about it, even if that's taken six months to get to a solution, we will bring them in afterwards. That way, what they say may or may not really influence what we are doing because we've already come together first before we invite them into it. And that's if we invite them into it. I'm not saying that to be mean and say, leave your family out of everything. But I do think that when you get married to become one and it's important for conversations to start within the marriage,
Solutions to start within the marriage, collaborations start within the marriage before you bring outside people into it. Outside voices carry a lot of weight, especially when they're family. And outside voices sometimes can overpower the unity that you're trying to build in your own marriage. And so your values start getting shaped by whoever is the most vocal about that or whoever you feel the need to keep happy. Or you might begin doubting your own decisions or decisions that you and your spouse
may have decided because you've invited an outside voice into it. I'm going to share this and because this is a women's podcast, I don't think my dad will listen to this episode. But if he does, I'm sorry, dad. But I remember when Alan and I were buying our first house and I was so excited. I was taking our parents to go see the process of the house being built. And at the time, it was a very developing area. There was a lot of windy roads, a lot of farmland and
My dad was with me in the car and Alan was with his mom and they were in front of us. And I never forget my dad said, you and Alan should not buy this house because the roads getting there is too dangerous. I had to stop for a second and think, I know my dad means well, but I had to think to myself, am I hearing this correctly? Like we should not buy this house because the roads are winding? Wow. So long story short, that
was in December of: Jennifer Parr (:I'm sharing that to say that I could have easily given in to what my dad said just because I respect him. My dad is very wise. My dad has never stared me or Alan wrong. And his fear for windy roads could have kept us from building and buying a house that has served us very well. Now, this may not be that extreme in your house, but think about the times where you have asked for advice or your in-laws or your parents have given you advice.
And all of a sudden, the confidence that you had in that decision has now shifted because you've invited other perspectives, other voices into it before you have had a chance to be unified with your spouse on that decision. I could go on about that, but I just want to stress that I do think that there is such thing as healthy family and extended family boundaries. And it is something that we should all explore whether you are single or married. OK.
I have just a few more boundaries. And as you listen to these last boundaries, I want you to open your heart a little bit because these are not ones that I think people talk about a lot. And so number six is volunteer and church boundaries. Now, this comes from a place where I don't believe that we should serve from guilt. I think that we should serve because we are on assignment and it fits into the calling and the purpose and the season that God has in our life.
When volunteer and church boundaries are not there, then serving becomes draining. You get burnt out easily. Alan and I came from a church where the volunteer culture was not healthy at all. If you couldn't make a meeting or if you couldn't show up for something, then you were kind of shamed. And I think this really hurts because deep down inside, you can care about the mission of your church. You can care about the people.
And you can still feel worn down. You can still start to get burnt out because the pace is just unsustainable. So take a look at your service and your contribution and volunteer work to your church. I think that it is so healthy. And if you are a part of a healthy body of Christ, then we can use our gifts to serve. I just think you have to set a boundary so that all of a sudden you don't feel like the joy that you had for serving is now turned into like obligation now.
Jennifer Parr (:When Alan and I met, once again, we were at a church where the volunteer culture was very, very unhealthy. When we got married, it's like there was more expectations of us. Now we had just got married. We didn't live together before we got married. And so we got married and we were just excited to be around each other. And I'll never forget Alan was working over 50 hours a week and he was serving at our church over 30, 40 hours a week. I mean, it was so much. I was like, I never see my husband. Like we just got married. I don't see you. And I don't think that
Biblically, this is right. I do think that there should be a season that when you get married or when you have a child, there's a big mouse on your life. You should have time to enjoy it. You should have time to celebrate or just be present in that season during that milestone. So church boundaries, volunteer boundaries, serving boundaries, those are all healthy boundaries that people don't talk about, but are very, very, very, very, very important. And because I think this affects more people,
then we acknowledge. I want you to do a quick self-assessment if you are serving. And these are signs that your serving may need some boundaries. So you might need a boundary around serving if, one, you feel irritated when you get another request. Even if it's a reasonable one, you're just like, my gosh, I'm already leading Bible study. Now you want me to do parking lot ministering? You may need to set a boundary around serving if your home is paying the price. That means that you're short-tempered, you're depleted, you're disconnected.
with your family at home where you have to show up completely different at church. Also, you may have to set a boundary if you rarely sit in service and receive. You're constantly giving, giving, giving, giving, and because you're always serving and working and managing and coordinating or rushing, then you don't even get an opportunity to sit in service and receive. This is huge. So setting boundaries around church and service protects your calling.
that God has on your life, the gifts that he's given you to fulfill that calling and that purpose. And it also prolongs your longevity when it comes to just your mental health. Galatians 6.2 calls us to bear one other's burdens. But remember that verse five reminds us each person carries their own load. That means there's a balance. We're supposed to carry our brothers and sisters burdens, but we also are supposed to carry our own, right?
Jennifer Parr (:And Romans 12, 18 says that to live peacefully as far as it depends on you. So your responsibility that you have, it does have limits. And if you don't set this boundary, then you'll start to feel responsible for everyone's mood. When you go out and that person is sad, you're like, what's wrong? You may have had a great day, but now you're responsible for their emotional shift. Let people be uncomfortable. It's okay for them to be uncomfortable. Let others sit with their own consequences.
I have learned some of the best lessons in my life when people don't rush and try to fix it, but they let me sit in it. And then God just wrecks me. And the final boundary that I think every woman needs to set, and that is self-expectation boundaries. This is when you set unrealistic internal standards. What you think about yourself, how you, what you think about yourself, how you speak to yourself, how you view yourself.
All of this plays a part into the self expectation that we have put on ourselves. So when you don't have healthy boundaries in this space, then your mind starts living in the what if. What if I forgot something today? What if I did too much? What if someone thinks I dropped the ball? What if my house is not in order? What if I missed that detail in that presentation? What if I disappoint? Fill in the blank. This is the perfect breeding ground.
perfection and perfectionism is something that I've struggled with for a long time. You may look put together on the outside. Everyone can look at you and be like, she's always well put together. But internally, you're constantly constantly scanning for what is unfinished, what went wrong, what could go wrong, what still needs to be fixed. Or even if you're doing something well, your brain just keeps moving that goalpost. So when this boundary is missing, sis, then you are
feeding the beasts of perfectionism and that fuels anxiety. When this boundary is missing, then you really never get rest because you don't feel like you deserve it. There's always something else you could do better. When this boundary is missing, there is nothing that really truly feels complete. And so I recommend that you just define what success looks like for you in this current season. Not what the world says, but in this season, what does success look like?
Jennifer Parr (:When I was working outside the home, success meant I was climbing the corporate ladder. I was getting more money. I was getting promoted. I was changing my title. All those things were what I defined as success. But once I got married and I had kids and I had a home, success looked different. None of those things mattered. So define what success looks like for you in this current season. And this season is going to change. So you may have to do this for every new season that you're in.
Every boundary that we have discussed in today's episode protects something. Your work boundary protects your time. Your self-expectation boundary protects your soul. Emotional labor boundaries, that protects your peace. Your volunteer and church boundaries, that protects the calling that God has on your life and being burnt out from it. That prolongs your longevity. Having healthy boundaries for your family and your extended family
That protects the unity in your home. When you have boundaries around technology access and how reachable you are, then that protects your attention and your nervous system. And so all of these boundaries protect something. And if you can set at least one or two of these boundaries this week, then your life will have a little bit more peace. It won't be perfect, but your life will have something that you can say.
I may not be in control of everything. Actually, we're not really in control of anything, but I can at least protect one of these things. So as we close, I would love to pray for us, but I want you to remember these boundaries and that is work boundaries define when work starts and when it ends. Social media boundaries just limit your exposure to comparison and validation seeking. Technology boundaries. This is technology access and how reachable you are. And so control when or how people can reach you. Friendship boundaries.
Just clarify emotional expectations and relational responsibilities so that you are not doing everything in the friendships. Extended boundaries, this goes for extended and direct family, but just try to influence your decision authority within your home and extend that to family as well. Then we've got voluntary emotional information consumption, self-expectation. All of these boundaries are boundaries that I pray that you just take a look at your life, reflect on it and ask God for which area
Jennifer Parr (:needs attention, which area needs focus, and which area needs a healthy boundary to be set. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gift of boundaries. Thank you for designing life with rhythm. You designed life with margin. You gave us wisdom with our lives. But Lord, for the woman who feels stretched thin, for the woman who feels overwhelmed or quietly exhausted, I ask that you would give her clarity.
Show her where her life needs lines. Give her courage to set them and give her wisdom to communicate them with grace, Help her to guard her time. Help her to guard her attention. Help her to guard her heart. And where she's been striving, teach her trust, Wherever she's been overextending or wherever she's been carrying what is not hers, Father, I pray that you teach her to release it. Your word says in Psalm 127 that striving without you is in vain.
Father we trust you, we trust you with our schedules, we trust you with our relationships, and we trust you with our calling, the calling that you have placed on our life. Thank you for this Lord and with this we pray that you help us set healthy boundaries in the areas that need it. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Thank you for tuning in again friend and go win this week and make God proud. Bye for now.