Where I draw the line

Monkey is watching Veggie Tales: Jonah right now.  A few minutes ago, as I was doing dishes, I heard Jonah singing, "Ninevah is where I draw the line."  He was telling God that he'll do anything for him - except go to Ninevah.  Why?  Those people are too bad for God to work in their lives.  (for real - Jonah is telling God who is too good or too bad).

This got me to thinking, "Where do I draw the line?"  I'm not talking about what people I've decided are too bad for God.  I'm pretty sure I that God is able to work in whomever he chooses.  BUT - I know that I do put limits on God's ability to work in and through me.  I suppose that is part of human nature - but that does not make it okay.  I HAVE to face those places that I don't let God do his thing because I am too smart.

So here it is.  Where I draw the line:  my health, my time and my finances.  Yep.  Those are the main areas that immediately pop into my mind.  I want control over those things.  I like to say I give them to God, but evidence shows that I have drawn a line.

My line for health: Exercise.  I don't like it, I don't want to do it.  I want to be healthy, but I want to control it through what I eat and skip out on the thing that I know will change my health.  Silly, huh?  I'm working on it.  I've got a friend that is helping me work on it.  We're trying to get together 3 times a week.  Even when we're not able to exercise together, we're checking in.  We both have big reasons to be healthier!

My line for time: well, that's fuzzy.  I'm a poor time manager.  I like to make lists and work through them to get tasks accomplished.  The problem with lists is that I seem to be good at getting side tracked.  You see, I have 3 kids and the oldest is 3.5.  It's easy and even important to let the lists be secondary.  My kids need to know that whatever else is going on in mommy's day, she is there for them.  This is a little tricky because I am working part time and I have to arrange my time in a way that I can accomplish tasks, sometimes while they're awake.  I'm working on how to make that happen, and will probably write a bit about that later.

My line for finances: $1000.  That's my comfort zone.  At the end of the month, when all of the bills have been paid, I want to see a minimum of $1000 left in my bank account.  We've been pushing it for about a year and a half now.  Every month it seems we're WAY below that when the bills have been paid.  It makes me nervous, I end up lacking in trust that we'll make it through the next week, month, year...  BUT, we have made it every month.  I need to start trusting that even when it's scary, we'll make it.  I recognize that "emergency savings" are important, but we're living off what we have for now.  Better times are coming.

Where do you draw the line?  What limits are you putting on God's ability to work in your life?  When I doubt or don't act in accordance with what I know to be truth, I am drawing a line.  Today is a new day.  I will step over some boundaries and live in blessing.