It's a Juggling Act............

photo courtesy of dreamstime

Our roles in life as a woman.  As a Christian woman.

Wife, mother, career woman, friend, ministry worker/servant, leader, sister, daughter.

It's like a juggling act to live a life of balance.

Our daily lives need balance.  Balanced diets, balanced checkbooks, balanced work-outs.

Our spiritual lives need balance. Time in the Word, prayer, church, fellowship, small groups, serving others, volunteering, ministry duties.

Our relationships need balance.   Time with the spouse, the children, the relatives, the parents if they're still alive, the college-aged young adult to mentor, the friendships to cultivate, the acquaintances and neighbors to reach out to, the work colleagues.  

All of the areas of our lives need balance.  Physical, mental, social/emotional, relational/marital, financial,  spiritual.

How do we achieve perfect balance?

We don't.

 Because we will never be perfect.  But there is One Person Who is Perfect, and with His help, we can gain better balance in every area.

The small group I lead (Got Teens?!) is studying the book Living a Life of Balance (from the Women of Faith series).  We've just finished the first lesson which talks about juggling the many roles we play on a daily basis. 

I Corinthians 15:44 is the lesson Scripture (along with many other Scriptures to aid in the question/answer section and in the Dig Deeper for discussion section). 

photo courtesy of Bible pic

The main points of the lesson are:

• We need physical AND spiritual balance. 
• To gain better balance we need a firm foundation (based on a relationship with Christ and going deeper and more intimate with Him on a daily basis)
• We will need to simplify our lives. (more will be discussed on how to do this in later lessons)
• We need to practice Psalm 119:11

• A balanced life thrives.
• A balanced life bears fruit.  Good fruit.
• Good fruit comes by abiding in Jesus as based on John 15:4

• God is glorified when we bear good fruit!

Jesus is the sustainer and source of our lives!

Some of the "dig deeper" Scriptures talked about letting no sin reign in our body! (Romans 6:12; Romans 8:13); about keeping our bodies pure.

This then led to a discussion of how important it is to teach our teens WHY we want them to keep their bodies pure until marriage. We discussed that even if something is legal it might not be ok spiritually!   There are consequences to everything we do!  Short term pleasures bring long term consequences.  This is true for teens as well as for us.  The short term pleasure of buying yet one more item for the house, or one more electronic device might have a long term consequence of financial stress, marital strife, and less time spent on relationships. (Just an example). The short term pleasure of sex outside of marriage might lead to an STD, pregnancy, emotional distress, heartache, more promiscuous behavior, low self-esteem, poor academic performance, spiritual apathy or total disregard for spiritual matters, and it definitely will lead to a soul tie which has its own consequences. (the example we used to bring our parenting of our  teens/college kids into the discussion)

PRACTICAL THINGS TO DO TO FIND PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL BALANCE

PHYSICAL:  eat healthy/make healthy choices; get sufficient rest and sleep; work-out/exercise at least 3x a week or more; relax and meditate; choose a hobby or something that is fun, creative or brings you some relaxation.

SPIRITUAL: pray; read the Scriptures daily; read a devotional; communicate with nature; fellowship with the body of Believers once a week; serve in a ministry but know your limits and time schedule; attend a small group.

We are looking forward to what God is going to do in this study!  We will be learning about balancing our time and responsibilities in Lesson 2.

Do you have a personal goal for better physical and/or spiritual balance?

What is it?

Get into God's Word and abide in Christ....and He will show you marvelous things!

The juggling act will get easier.....!

PLEASE NOTE: because this is a lesson/small group study summary, you DO have permission to copy this post.  Thank you!!

Note: Got Teens?! is a small group of Grace Fellowship Church.  It is a group for moms who have at least one teenager and/or young emergent adults (college aged students).  We currently have 7 in our group. We are in our 4th year of doing life together!