Office Of Community Life Offers A Six Week Workshop Series For Female Students

“Good fences make good neighbors,” wrote author Robert Frost. 

Frost understood that boundaries help us create and maintain healthy relationships. The Office of Community Life started their Boundaries in Life series on Jan. 24. This program aims to teach female students how to create and maintain boundaries in their lives.

The series is a six-week program held every Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Freedom Tower by the Office of Community Life under the leadership of Director of Educational Programming and Assessment Leanne Gifford. 

Gifford shared that the series was created when multiple associate directors noticed the lack of opportunities for female students to grow and learn about boundaries. This prompted the initiative to develop a series designed to equip them with a better understanding of boundaries in life.

“We noticed the need for help in understanding the foundation of being able to say ‘no’ and being able to develop healthy relationships with others as well as balancing their time, their schedule and their money well,” Gifford said. 

The series follows the “Boundaries” book written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. Gifford said the Office of Community Life only asks students to pay $5 for the book, but if need be, the office will provide a free copy for them. 

Sophomore Jules Peterson believes it is important for Liberty to have a series on boundaries for female students. From her own experience with boundaries, she has discovered they are needed for a good relationship foundation.

“When people aren’t aware that the boundaries are the problem then you are always fixing symptoms of what’s going on. So, the relationship will never be healed because you don’t have the foundation set up,” Peterson said. 

According to Gifford, the foundation and importance of boundaries and understanding God’s design for boundaries will be covered in the first few sessions. Next, they will then cover boundaries in relationships as well as myths often surrounding boundaries.

Each session lasts for an hour with the first 20 minutes led by Gifford covering the main points of the assigned chapter followed by 40 minutes of small group discussion.

Gifford hopes the sessions being offered for six weeks will enable students to dive deeper into the book and explore more topics compared to the previous year’s four-week session format. 

While the series has started, Gifford said students can still join in weeks two and three but states that students would get more benefit out of the series the earlier they attend the workshop. 

Students must register to participate in the series. To register, email the Office of Community Life
at communitylife@liberty.edu.

Haydon is a news reporter. Follow her on Twitter