Finding Lifes Balance

FINDING LIFES BALANCE

“Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.”
Stephen Covey

Have you ever noticed that engraved on our monetary supply are the words In God we trust and E pluribus Unum?

Each of us more than likely understands the significant meaning behind our country honoring the financial treasure of the Father but what about E pluribus Unum?

E pluribus Unum is Latin for one out of many. Interesting stuff. Forgetting what modern day politicians and historians may want to rewrite about our countries history the fact is that our great leaders knew the significant example of honoring the Father and reminding all that we are taught to follow His example and serve our neighbor with love and humility.

Our great leaders recognized and wanted each of us to be continually reminded that independently we each represent just one and our great strength comes from the many.

This is a country that’s tradition is founded on a Judo Christian belief system. Our founding fathers knew how important it was to honor the Father on our monetary supply.

Is it possible that they chose to honor the Father on our countries money because they heeded the Fathers warning of the great distraction, sin, and false God that money can become in our lives?

Is there a message about surrender, service and balance here?

One of the most important ongoing series of decision that you will have opportunity to wrestle with over the course of your lifetime has to do with whether or not your life is in balance. Do your decisions control it or is it controlling you? This seems like an easy question to answer but I caution you slow down and think this through as it is a very important question to answer correctly as it wil spark a series of important decisions.

I have heard it quoted that: “Leading a balanced life can be difficult for any of us. There is not an exact pattern that works for everyone, and even our own blueprint may change during different phases of life." I think this is a fairly insightful assessment but it seems to me that the real question is what does finding balance mean to you, your decision process, and reaching a true balance in your life?

Lets take just a second slowing down long enough to evaluate the actual balance in your life. Do you find yourself involved in activities that you wouldn't choose to be involved in if you were driving the decision process? Do you find yourself missing key moments in the lives of your family members? Do you feel like you have to be on 24/7/365? Do you feel that nothing happens without you bearing its burden? Does your life feel out of control and heading in a direction not of your choosing. Do you find that your job is a source of concern, frustration, or stress? Do you find yourself under achieving? Do you find yourself not making the decisions that you know that you should be making? Do you find yourself unable to disconnect from your mobile phone, blackberry, and personal computer?

At this point if you are thinking, hey this guy must know me because these questions certainly apply to me. No we have not met but there is an old adage that misery loves company. So join the crowd brother, like many of us your life can probably use a bit of balance. This is not a question of right vs. wrong lifestyle but rather a question of effective vs. ineffective lifestyle.

Finding Balance in your life is centered on the ability and willingness to prioritize well thought out short and long-term decisions. Balance cannot exist without us choosing to master the skill of managing and controlling ourselves in relationship to date and time. At its core it requires us to make decisions that we believe in and not allow ourselves to have decisions thrust upon us as a result of the chaos that surrounds our life.

In essence balance is all about the commitment to keep all people, events, projects, schedules, and activities in appropriate perspective. This requires us to take a firm, bold stand against all the people, habits, practices, and activities that cause us to waste energy, time, resources and opportunity. We have to be both courageous enough and willing to look an opportunity in the eye and say no thank you tonight is my night out with my wife, daughter, son, or family.

It is an old business adage that 80% of our routine activities contribute less than 20% to the outcome of our desired results. The result of the 80-20 rule is that each of us must assume full responsibility and control of our decisions, projects, and tasks in order to find the happy center and balance in our lives. It is the unproductive 80% that eats up our time and robs us of balance in life. These time consumers rob us of time we cherish with our family and friends while contributing nearly nothing to our effectiveness or success. Guard with all your might against falling into their trap and allowing these unproductive time consumers to control your time, peace, success, and balance.

Instead consider reallocating some of the time that you were allotting to this 80% crowd to focus on a higher calling one which honors the Father, your family, and you. Investing in service of some type, as a priority generally improves balance, frees us up to experience increased personal productivity, attainment of long-term goals, and allows us to reach ultimate success, happiness, and peace of mind.

For all these reasons I am asking you to consider, as the first step to finding balance, to seek out the will of the Father and commit yourself to living the life that God has planned for you.

In order to free yourself up to get to this point in life a second step that you must take is to be ready commit to being disciplined, to surrender to His will, and to devote every aspect of your life; Spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical to finding balance with His will.

Attaining this level of surrender and peace requires the complete elimination of any and all excuses in our life. It requires a resolve on our part to be all that the Father has called us to be. It requires that we get focused with a singleness of purpose to align our will with His.

With this accomplished we can position our life to take advantage of His promises.

Pray for guidance as you seek to put him first and prioritize your life so that you can find the inner peace, security and love of balance.

Here is what the Lord has to say about Finding Balance In Life in His word.

(1) In Job 31:6 - "Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity."


(2) In 
Proverbs 11:1 - "A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight."

(3) In Matthew 6:33 - " But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

(4) In Luke 12:15 - “Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

(5) In Matthew 5:6 - “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

(6) In Psalms 119:105 - “ Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

(7) In Psalms 119:11 - " I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

(8) In Matthew 22: 37-38 - “ Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

(9) In James 1:27 - “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. “

(10) In Proverbs 8:17 - “ I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”

(11) In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 –“ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

(12) In Matthew 16: 24-26 - “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

So in the end, mastering the ability to find balance in your life is a difficult challenge but one that will make a positive difference in your decision making ability.

As you consider how balanced your life is I want to encourage you to take a step back and take a long, hard, look at your life. Evaluate your stress level, your priorities and answer the question of whether of not you are putting the Father first? Is your life self-centered or Christ centered? Are you programmed to serve or are you looking first and foremost to be served?

As we have previously discussed I believe the first step to restoring balance and living your life successfully is to seek His will, way, and word. Without the real peace of having a personal relationship with the Lord anchoring our lives and decisions most of us will find ourselves feeling overwhelmed, stressed, unhappy, and lacking focus throughout the day. When we make the choice to lead a life of surrender and service we are free to focus on what is really important and finish the day with a true sense of accomplishment, direction, and balance.

Here are Eight (8) tips to Finding Balance In Life:

1. PUT GOD FIRST- Christ must be at the center of everything. The Bible teaches us that our one and only priority is to keep Him, His Kingdom, and His righteousness first in everything. His will and our service to Him is our priority.

2. Focus- Be specific about the decisions, goals and objectives, which you establish.

3. Take a Long Term View- Make decisions in the present that can have the greatest positive impact on your future. Short- term decisions must align themselves with established long-term decisions.

4. Take Responsibility - You control your choices and are responsible for everything that happens and everything that you commit to.

5. Limit Multi- tasking- Performing several tasks less efficiently only serves to create anxiety, stress, and a sense of being out of control.

6. Turn Off and Tune Out – It is simply not possible or practical to believe that you can be “on” all 24/7/365. As the old saying reminds us if you attempt to burn the candle from both ends you will either get burned or if successful run out of light twice as fast.

7. Eliminate the Clutter- Don’t allow your life or your day to be or get to full.

8. Plan- Set clear priorities for each area of your life. Remember to always make the decision to choose the activities that will assure you the greatest health, happiness and financial success in the long term.

Six (6) Questions to better Finding Balance In Life:

1. Would you say that in your life you possess: a) A lot of balance b) An average amount c) very little balance? What makes you think that?

2. When you think of the word “balance,” as we’re using it here, what thoughts come to your mind – overall, what are your attitudes about “balance”?

3. If you could change it, would you choose to have more balance in your life, or less? Why?

4. In what area of your life, right now, do you have the most balance? (Examples: This could be work, home, family, etc., or even attitudes, behaviors, habits, etc.)

5. In what area of your life, right now, do you have the least amount of balance?

6.If you wanted more balance in you’re life, what is one thing you could do, starting today, to achieve that?

Have you ever been just rocked by some series of events or motivated to really consider your priorities and life balance by the words of a loved one or perhaps by something that you watched or read? Has any event in your life forced you into submission and an honest evaluation of life’s fast track that you are on?
If so you aren’t the first and won’t be the last, if not you had better prepare as it seems to happen to all of us.

The fact that we would get caught up like this shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all we are constantly bombarded by stimulus that encourages us to pour our lives into everything imaginable except that which is truly important. At every turn we are solicited, marketed, sold and tempted to fill our lives with everything from making a million dollars in our spare time, to vacationing 5 times a year, to purchasing anything that we have ever dreamed of today, to the selling of our soul for a promotion. The list goes on and on. Keeping or maintaining balance in light of this all out assault on our time, dollar, and personal lifestyle is nearly impossible.

During this all out blitz period when our lives really seem to be lacking all balance stop and spend a couple of hours providing a service that costs nothing except time to someone who needs you. I promise that your life will suddenly make sense again.

Consider these Five (5) Pitfalls to avoid to put you on the path to find balance in your life.

Five (5) Life Balance Pitfalls to avoid:

1) Stress at Work – One-fourth of employees rate their jobs as the number-one stressors in their lives.

2) Financial Concern- Money woes matter effecting and affecting every area of your life created serious unbalance.

3) Short Fuse – If everything and everyone bothers you, more than likely the real issue that you are dealing with is that your lack of balance is draining your sense of humor, tolerance, and patience.

4) Complicated Lifestyles – Complicated lifestyles tend to be busy. Busy often causes stress. Stress causes your balance to get off center. To find balance and satisfaction in your life simplify.

5) Living by Default – Don’t allow your balance to be hijacked by others. Take back your life.

As a final thought on this subject, I would like you to consider that finding balance in your life is both energizing and liberating. It allows you to be who God intended you to be. In addition when your life is balanced you on the real path to great decision-making. To that end it is important that you schedule a time each and everyday on our calendars for sufficient rest, exercise, relaxation and prayer if you seek to enjoy a healthy and balanced life.

PRACTICE: To practice the concept of balance this week, I’d like you to make a list in your Success Journal of three areas in which you would like to practice having more balance. Then write an action step for each one, telling yourself how you could accomplish that.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father all honor, praise and glory to you. Thank you for the many blessing that you have chosen to provide in my life. Father all balance begins with placing you first in our lives. Your loving guidance provides us with the structure necessary for balance in our lives. The discipleship of discipline, which you instruct us, gives me strength and balance. Thank you father for being my rock. I love you Lord.

Article Source: http://christian-topics.info

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