We’ve all played this little game. New Year’s resolutions are inspired by it. We’re waiting for the perfect time to start following our boundaries…

The beginning of the year… the beginning of the month… on Monday… after the Holiday… after vacation… after our company leaves… after I get over this cold… after the kitchen remodel… after things settle down…

…and we keep putting off living within our boundaries until the perfect time.

I have a little secret…

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT TIME.

It’s true. We’ve fooled ourselves into believing life will slow down or stop long enough for us to successfully address our food issues without distractions. That will never happen.

Why? Because life doesn’t work that way… For that matter, humans don’t work that way. We will always find a “reason” why “right now” isn’t the best time to follow our boundaries. This lie is so destructive because it is so simple we hardly question its motives.

What’s more, if we refused to believe the lie of an ideal time waiting on the horizon, we might discover that following our boundaries in the midst of utter chaos actually makes us stronger.

Say what??

That’s right. Think about it. Growth usually happens during times of great stress. What if we decided to make a commitment to renew our minds even though everything in our lives screams, “YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!”

What if we lived within our boundaries during the most chaotic time of the day, or week, or month, or year? What if we made ourselves renew our minds about said boundaries when we are most tempted to break them.

What we do when we are stressed or worn out by life becomes a deeply ingrained behavior and often shapes our beliefs moving forward. So far, we’ve practiced living outside our boundaries (or in defeat) because we believe the lie of an ideal time in the future when following our boundaries will be “easier”.

However, if we chose to turn to God in those moments… if we chose to stick to our boundaries when we can come up with every excuse in the book not to…

…we would quickly realize that now is the perfect time.

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalm 118:24 (KJV)