I set a boundary today.

I said “No.”

It wasn’t an easy “no.”  It took hours of thought and some prayer, along with processing the situation with a few close and wise friends.

Sometimes it’s hard to  not be able to be there for someone.  Especially when their situation is heartbreaking.  It’s hard to say “no” knowing it may mean they have to wait longer in their hurt.

This morning’s reading in Jesus Calling talked about taking baby steps and grown up steps of faith.  Saying “yes” to something hard or difficult not just saying “yes” to the easy stuff.  If I had read this last night I might have changed my mind and said “yes” to the request.  It would have felt like that was the grown up step of faith.  The one where I would have put myself in a place of chaos and challenge beyond my ability to deal with what could arise telling myself I was believing and trusting God to get me through it because it seemed like the “higher calling.”

What I realized this morning is that saying “no” was the harder choice, the grown up step, the one that took more faith; a deeper challenge of trusting God, because ultimately the individual’s request would need to be taken care of by Him and not me.

Sometimes saying “no” is the harder path of faith…and in that there is wisdom.