Finding a Balance in My Life

I really struggle with finding a healthy balance in my life. I juggle school, homemaking, building a business, being a good friend and a mom and wife. I always manage to do well in one area but never all of them at once. And then let's not forget that I still like some leisure time to do fun things like study our family history or read good books.

This week we're doing pretty good at staying on task of getting our schoolwork done. It's Wednesday and the house is still pretty tidy if you don't look too carefully for dust. But my to do list always seems longer than my day. I try to use my Saturdays to catch up on the things that don't get done through the week but I was gone last Saturday and we'll be gone all weekend coming up. So it's essential that I get as much done as possible during the week.

I realize this is not a new battle. My friends who work full-time and have their kids in several activities are stretched even more thin than I am. I see them struggling, exhausted and feeling like they never measure up. Always feeling behind and defeated and it makes my heart break.

You see I don't think that this is how life is supposed to be. Yes, I think we need to make good use of our time.  Yes, I believe we are to be busy working on the tasks that God has called us to do but sometimes I think we heap on an awful lot more that God ever expected of us. We look at others and think that we have to keep up. They have more stuff so we incur debt and have to work more to pay for it. Their kids are sports stars so we have to get our kids involved in more to make it look good. They are involved in different civics organizations and it looks impressive so we decide we need to do the same thing. Guess what? God doesn't care about any of that! All of these things are good but they are not the MAIN THING!

The other day this verse came to mind and I thought that's it, this is what God is wanting me to focus on right now. Micah 6:8 says "He hath shewn thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

If I keep this in my thoughts, how will it affect my daily life? It doesn't mean I don't have to do my work but it might help me keep in mind that the work is not the main thing. The work is stuff that has to do be done but am I supposed to stress if I don't get it all finished? Am I supposed to get frustrated if my list doesn't get checked off every day? I am pretty sure that is not the response that God wants from me. It also doesn't mean that my kids or I can't be involved in activities, but when it makes our stress levels high and we're losing out as a family then it's time to reassess things.

I am loving my daily planner this year. At the top of the page I make a list of the tasks I want to complete each week and then if it's vital to get done it done I put a star beside it. On each day I put things like school, my appointments, menu, phone calls I need to make and a reminder to do Plexus business. At the end of the week if there are tasks that I didn't get done then I move them to top of the next week. Some of my tasks aren't urgent or they are things that take a long time so I'm doing it in increments such as scanning our family tree into PDF. This is very time consuming so I do it in little bits as I have time. Using my planner this way has made life much more manageable for me. I think I'm even going to designate an hour just for reading because otherwise I get too busy and don't take time for it or I sit down and read for hours and then I realize it's midnight and I'm late to bed.

I still don't have it all worked out. There are things I would like to be doing outside the home too but it's just not working out so well with a boy who needs constant supervision. These may be things I never get to do, but I always hope maybe someday...

To top it all off, I am really feeling a pull to do something really big next year, I'm not ready to tell anyone because this is so much bigger than me it will have to totally be God directed. So, I would appreciate my friends praying for me.

What am I really getting at with this post? If you're stressed trying to do too much then sit down and rethink what is most important to you? What can you take out of your life that will not cause harm? And if you look at your life in 20 years what will you realize never really mattered? Then take it from there and see what you need to change. It may just make it a little easier for you to breathe and you can rest at night without feeling guilty that you didn't do the most important things.

I will leave you with this link to listen too. 
Blessing,
Kris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJIqwCIPcw