Balance Your Life

Whitney Hopler

Are you frequently in a hurry? Do you find it difficult to say no to people? Does a desire to be perfect hound you?

If so, relax. There will be enough of you to go around if you balance your life the way God intends.

Here are some ways you can set your life in balance:

• Accept your limitations. Know that God didn't create you to be or do everything.
• Ask God to reveal His purposes for your life. Then set your priorities around those purposes. Whenever considering whether to invest time or energy into something, determine whether it will help you fulfill one of God's purposes for your life. If not, don't waste your time or energy.
• Embrace God's deep yet unconditional love for you, which is based on who you are (His child) rather than on what you do. Place your confidence in God rather than in other people's evaluations of your performance.
• Accept the grace God offers. Strive to rely on God's strength rather than your own as you grow in holiness.
• Establish healthy boundaries in your relationships with other people.
• Know what energizes you, and also what depletes your energy. Study the social, spiritual, psychological, physical, and vocational aspects of your life to discern what unique needs you have in various areas. Don't compare yourself to others who God has wired differently.
• Strive to complete just what God wants you to accomplish in a particular day -- no more, and no less.
• Do important tasks before urgent tasks.
• Don't procrastinate.
• Plan ahead.
• Organize the space around you.
• Delegate tasks to others when you can.
• Say no when appropriate, and don't feel guilty about it.
• Deal effectively with interruptions.
• Strive to communicate as clearly as possible so others will know what to expect of you.
• Limit your paperwork by trying to handle each piece of paper only once.
• Make lists of things to do.
• Limit the time you spend talking on the telephone.
• Limit the time you spend in meetings.
• Encourage your family to work together as a team in your household.
• Build and nurture a few close friendships.
• Be open and honest about your feelings of loss. Don't be afraid to grieve them.
• Plan for upcoming seasons in your life, expecting changes to occur. Trust God to guide you well into each new season. Ask God to give you an eternal perspective on your life no matter what season you're currently in.
  

Adapted from When There's Not Enough to Go Around: Life Solutions to Perfectionism, People-Pleasing & Performance Pressures, copyright 2002 by Ellen Banks Elwell and Joan Bartel Stough. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill., www.ivpress.com, 1-800-843-4587.

Ellen Banks Elwell is a writer based in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill. She has written six other books. Joan Bartel Stough has been an instructor of developmental psychology and family studies at Wheaton College. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a practice in Winfield, Ill.

Do you sometimes feel as if there's not enough of you to go around? If so, what gives when that happens, and why? Has God helped you make any recent changes to your life to balance your time and energy more effectively? If so, what did you change, and how did that change the quality of your life? Visit Crosswalk's forums to discuss this topic by clicking on the link below.