2014 Book Review #26: Living a Life of Balance

Just finished the Bible study book that my group (Got Teens?! Small Group) has been working on since the end of January.  What a great book!  This book has been a blessing to me.  Based on the responses of most of the moms in the group, this book was a hit with them, too.

STUDY SUMMARY

This book has 12 lessons and each lesson contains a Scripture that coincides with that week's lesson, a little anecdote written by one of the Women of Faith team members, and study/discussion questions based on Scriptures.  There were about 8-10  questions per lesson and the work was very easy.  It's not a difficult study in that most of the questions are subjective based directly from the Scriptures.  There were a few that were more intrinsic and had us thinking.

Each lesson centers around a different area in our lives that need balance.

The 12 areas were:

• Time vs. Responsibilities
• Schedules vs. Interruptions
• Work vs. Rest (excellent for those of us who don't keep the Scripture of "Being still and knowing God"  very well.
• Faith vs.  Sight
• Love vs. Obedience
• Faith vs. Works
• Wants vs. Needs (A GOOD ONE!!!! and so important for applying to our teens' lives)
• Longing vs. Contentment (Another good one that generated discussion to help our teens with this)
• Unity vs. Diversity
• Our Wishes vs. God's Will (another good one)
• Working and Waiting

I wish I had time to sit here and write out what each chapter meant to me....but I don't.

I am going to do this like a typical book review but in the next post will be my personal thoughts to wrap up this study.  The title will be "Moving like a Mobile"

It should be posted by tomorrow morning.

This study included some quotes by the leaders of Women of Faith (Luci Swindoll, Patsy Clairmont, Sheila Walsh, etc). and the back of the book had leader notes with answers to some of the discussion questions.

It also included "treasure trinket" ideas to give to the ladies after each week's discussion.  I loved doing that (my love language is gifts, so this was perfect for me!!).  For example, I passed out little sleep blindfolds for the discussion about balancing faith and sight.  

MY THOUGHTS

This is an excellent study for women because we all need better balance in our lives.  We have a lot to juggle in today's world.  We have physical, emotional, social/relational, mental, spiritual, career/family health to deal with.

All of these things need the proper balance to stay functioning well.

This book challenged me to find the right balance for me, particularly in the areas of physical health (I'm striving to work out more to maintain a lean, toned body and it's hard to find that time...especially during the work week and in the winter!) and my spiritual health. Even my marriage has had some challenges that need a check in the balances. I challenged each mom to think of at least one (or more) areas in the above categories that needed better balance. Some of them shared about those areas.

I walked away from this study learning that really, our spiritual health, is the first thing that needs work to maintain proper balance. All else will come under that ,and will be easier to deal with, if we have a relationship with Christ and become more intimate with Him on a daily basis.  From there, we learn our purpose in life and the plans God has for us.

In my opinion, this study book is appropriate for ages 17 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.