All summer long, an adorable little bunny has been showing up in our backyard. She’s a stealthy animal, and I’ve never actually caught her eating any of my plants or vegetables, but the evidence of her voracious appetite is everywhere: flowers that suddenly disappear, baby citrus buds that mysteriously vanish; shrubs stripped bare overnight.

Anytime I confront the bunny in my garden, she freezes on the spot and gives me a smug, side-eyed stare that tells me she is not afraid to eat the fruits of my labor – and as soon as I turn my back, she will continue with her meal.

I understand that I am the intruder in her ecosystem, but I had hoped we could co-exist peacefully in my backyard, as partners in an informal sharing economy. So, when I first noticed the bunny hanging out among my sweet potato vines, I didn’t think much of it. She was a small bunny, and she had those adorable eyes…until I realized the small bunny was getting larger and my sweet potato vines weren’t quite as full and dense as they used to be.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the sweet, not-so-little $&^$#@ bunny had plowed through most of the vines, eaten all but a few of the leaves and left the survival of this year’s sweet potato crop in serious jeopardy. I had to take action!

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables – and one of the few I have been able to grow successfully in my backyard. And I put a lot of effort into this year’s crop! After digging up the remaining sweet potatoes last fall, I carefully prepared the soil and kept the bed weeded and nourished. The first heart-shaped leaves started to pop up in April, and I was looking forward to a bumper crop.

Because they are root vegetables, you can’t know with certainty how sweet potatoes are doing until you dig them up. While they are underground, they rely on their leaves and vines to transfer the nourishment they require to reach their growing potential. Without a connection to a leaf and vine system on the surface, sweet potatoes will languish and die.

I know that hungry $&^$#@ bunny was just following its instinct. Those sweet potato vines and leaves made for a great meal – they were easy to reach, abundant and satisfying. But I needed to establish some boundaries in our little co-existent relationship.

The solution had to be something that would allow the sun and the rain to reach the plants – and keep the bunny out. So, I covered the vines with several yards of vinyl netting – just enough of a barrier to prevent the bunny from eating the leaves and the vines and still allow the plants to receive nourishment.

It’s working – and the plants are already starting to come back! New leaves are popping up and the vines are back on the run. Of course, I can’t tell how the sweet potatoes are faring underneath the soil, but there is still a lot of time in the growing season, and I am praying for a comeback.

People are a lot like sweet potatoes. The most important parts of us are hidden from view – our hearts, our souls, and our minds – and those are the parts that produce our most valuable assets – our joy, our hope, and our understanding of the world.

Like sweet potatoes, we humans need to protect the receptors that nourish our hearts, souls and minds so they don’t get devoured by hurtful people, hostile circumstances, and overexposure to negative information.

So many of the destructive influences in our lives can seem innocent at first (like my adorable $&^$#@ bunny). But if we don’t recognize their damaging effects and create healthy boundaries around them, we can wind up brokenhearted, cynical and angry. Like withered sweet potatoes that didn’t receive enough nourishment.

Boundaries aren’t the same as isolation – and they don’t have to diminish our experience of a full and joy-filled life. They are simply a way of curating our exposure to corrosive elements that can be toxic to the health of our hearts, our souls and our minds.

In my own life, I have even found that boundaries can sometimes improve an otherwise contentious relationship. In fact, now that I have put limits on the areas where that bunny can eat, we have resumed our peaceful backyard co-existence.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything else flows from it.

Proverbs 4:23