Finding Balance

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

- James 4:8

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I'm sorry for the silence on this blog lately. To be honest, I severely underestimated how hard it would be to find an hour in my day to write, with a baby in the house. The bigger she gets, the busier she becomes, and when I'm lucky enough for her to take an hour nap, there's laundry to wash and fold and put away, dishes that need to be done, groceries to unpack, and 2 other kids with busy schedules themselves. And then there's homework hour, parent teacher conferences, softball practice and games, church meetings, daily workouts, devotional time with Andrew, the dreaded bedtime routine, and before I know it, it's midnight, and I've gone another day without writing.

I started this blog to help encourage people, but I also started it to discipline myself and ensure that I would take time every day to study scripture, and write about what I'm learning. And after a couple of months of dedicated writing, I fell away.

Isn't that just like us, in our relationship with God? We allow the busyness of life to take us away from studying scripture, from taking time to pray, from taking time to meditate on His word, and even just to be still and allow His Spirit to talk to us. We fill our days with a million little things, and how many of those tasks are even important?

Am I working for The Kingdom, or am I working for momentary happiness?

I'm realizing, as I learn more about being a wife and Mom, that there must be a balance in this life. Of course I need to take care of my family and home, and I need to take time for my personal health and well-being, but even more importantly, I need to take time for God.

So in my always-striving-for- perfection life, what does this balance look like? Maybe it means that the last hour of my night is spent in personal devotion time instead of straightening the house. Maybe it means my throw pillows will be off-kilter when I go to bed, and the coffee table may have discarded bottles or cups that still need to be washed. But will my spirit be more at rest, and ready for sleep? Will I sleep through the night without concerns keeping me awake?

Maybe finding this balance means that I let go of my need for perfection, and for everything in my life to be "just so", and let life unfold as it does around me from time to time, because I'm focusing on things more important. Kingdom things. Spiritual things.

I started this blog to help other people, but perhaps it's helped me the most, in understanding how important daily time with God is.

Time spent with Jesus is never wasted, and we'll never reach a place where we've learned enough or know it all. We are in constant need of maturing, and growing in knowledge of our LORD and Savior. And we know that He will bless our time spent with Him, He will meet us, and reveal Himself to us.

So here's to finding balance, here's to cutting away time and rededicating myself to learn, write, and grow.

I hope you'll join me.