Regina 
Have you ever read one of those articles about living a balanced life? You know, a life where you can cook, clean, do a hobby, love a husband, and a handful of children while keeping up with exercise, interior design, steam cleaning the carpet, sweeping & mopping the floors, and still manage to squeeze in a regular coffee date that happens during an hour you would prefer with friends…. Maybe you have figured out how to fit it all in every.single.day, do tell (smile), but I haven’t and this is not a post like that…. If you’re feeling disappointed, just keep searching, you will find what you’re looking for, but it will leave you empty…probably and here’s why.
We cannot do it all. Gasp (and smile). Did I say what we all secretly know out loud? You can’t excel at everything. You’re not super woman and the minute you pick up another plate by design you have to put one down. There some things you should never ‘put down.’ Like mornings and evenings spent lingering in God’s Word. Jesus offers life and like the kiddos & I are memorizing, it lights up our way. We need that. We can’t put that plate down ever…that’s why we memorize and meditate so we can keep enjoying the nourishment all day.
Then, there’s that husband of yours if the Father has so blessed you with one. You can’t neglect him, not even for that slew of cute-haired, wild bunch of kids. He has to remain at the top of the list by the Lord’s beautiful command.
And you can never stop teaching your kids. They need truth impressed upon their hearts. They need someone to peel back the curtain and show them moment by moment how amazing, how wonderful our God really is. If you neglect the Word, you will undoubtedly be ill-equipped to reveal in any meaningful way the striking wonder of God to their blank-slate hearts.
You can’t do it all and have it all all the of the time and obey God’s commands. Something is always sacrificed for what is greater. We must put something down for the call. If it were easy to pick up your cross and follow Jesus, I suppose it would be pretty trendy, but people who follow Jesus end up doing strange things like lying down on their side for over a year to illustrate a point to God’s people like Ezekiel. They end up imprisoned or beheaded, sometimes sick and homeless like Paul. They end up miles away from their friends and family and the only country they have ever known, because of the Lord’s command and call.
They are women like you and me, who give up various dreams (like being perfectly in shape and well-rested) to fulfill a daily duty to love their own husband and train their own children. They are women who resist the allure of sin in all its subtleties. They love to their own hurt and do things for the sake of the Gospel, because there is a higher calling…an upward calling. And Jesus is leading us there.
So, yeah we work out regularly if we can at all, that’s good. Yeah, we do coffee and relax a bit with a hobby or two, but at the end of the day if we spin all our plates a few of the side dishes are left undone, so be it. We’re living for something better than all of that (see Hebrews). We may not live these coveted so-called balanced lives, but we can live lives that offer glory up to the King…the way looks more like a cross and lot less like a magazine picture…. See the beauty in life and capture it if you can, but don’t skip Jesus chasing after a worldly ideal that will leave you longing and never satisfied.
If missing the balanced life means you live more like Jesus, I suppose we want the latter anyway. Life…it may not be balanced but it could start to radiate an other-worldly beauty more and more…
