A reflection on how Christian women have been duped by this worldly philosophy.
For the longest time, I have been told that the key to a happy life is learning how to balance everything in my life. That if I can just balance being a mom, a wife, a friend, and, most importantly, a Christian, I can have it all. So, a little “me” time here. A little “God” time there. A little “mom” thing here. A little “wife” thing there. A little “job” duty here. A little “church” duty there. (deep breath) I just have to learn to balance it all.
And, of course, as Christian women, we would easily give in and believe in this philosophy of balance because all these things are very good things – being a mom, a wife, a friend, a church-going believer, an employee. Balance claims to cure our inner conflicts of doing what we must and doing what we want. Balance will ensure that our 24-hour days are not wasted. Balance promises wholeness and health, whether mentally, physically, or spiritually. And so, we busily plan and schedule and allocate our lives away in the name of balance just to realize that at the end of each day we are still as frustrated and scattered as the day before as if we lived through the day without really living. We think to ourselves, “Well, maybe I will balance my life better tomorrow…”
If this is you, please listen. I am going to tell you what I wished someone would have told me years ago even though it was so obvious. It could have saved me a whole lot of trouble, guilt, and heartache. You ready? (Drum roll please……)
The truth is that balance traps us in an unending cycle of struggle and toil. There can be no rest for your heart and soul, dear sister, when you are seeking for balance in your life. You will always be working and working to keep balance. Think for a minute now…to achieve perfect balance, there will always be a constant shifting to adjust and compensate, always a give and take, always a constant monitoring for any imbalance. There is no rest and joy in that kind of living.
But it sounds so great. Who wouldn’t want to be a balanced person? Balance was all I ever wanted as a busy mom and wife until I realized through Scripture that it was a worldly concept to keep us in bondage to a worldly way of thinking about the details of our lives.
Scripture does not instruct us to balance our lives. God’s wisdom tells us to prioritize. Balance forces us to hold everything in our own hands’ grip. Meanwhile, prioritizing allows us to de-clutter our lives, giving us more focus and clarity in our living. In fact, God promises that when we learn to prioritize God in our lives, all the other details of life will fall in their proper places. Our lives will have order and peace. There will be satisfaction for us. There will be rest for our souls. Check it out. I’ll let God speak for Himself.
Prioritize God Before Everything Else
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Conclusion
Balance is the way of the world, not God’s way. The world’s scheme is to have us busily distracted by all our tasks and all our roles and all our responsibilities through what it calls “balance”. The world would have us believe that we can have it all through what it calls “balance”. Have Christian women been duped to believe this? Tragically, yes!!!
Prioritizing God in our lives sounds cliché, I know. Prioritizing God is easier said than done. Prioritizing God is an easily forgotten truth in the business of daily living. But what you are looking for starts here, my friend. Kiss balance good-bye and embrace prioritizing God. In my next blog post I will be sharing ways of how we can flesh out this concept of prioritizing God as it relates to being busy women of God juggling life.
Father, You alone have the wisdom we need, and You freely offer it to us (Proverbs 2:6; 8:1-3). The summation of your rest, wisdom, and peace is found in Jesus Christ, our Savior (1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 2:2-3; Hebrews 4:3). Teach us what it means to have Jesus as priority in our lives and lift our burdens! Amen!
Redeemed Woman 
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