How to Maintain Balance in Our Lives in 2024

As we embark on a new year with resolutions and new goals, we need to keep balance in mind. Life is challenging. Even with the hope of a fresh new year, some of us find ourselves facing mountains. Your mountain may be raising children or grandchildren. You may be navigating an illness, job loss, deadlines, debt, a demanding boss, a troubled marriage, or troubled teenagers. Maybe life is good, but your mountain is business, and you are tired.

Can I tell you something interesting about the term “mountain”? We always think of mountains as representative of difficult times, but in biblical days mountains were a symbol of power too. So, how do we balance the power of the good, bad, and the ugly in our lives? How do we deal with these mountains demanding control of our days?

Taking Care of Your Inside and Outside

We can’t ignore the fact that our mind, body, and soul are all connected. The way we care for each of these areas in our lives will affect the other two. I’ve found in my life, my best days were the ones when I included exercise, Bible study, and intentional worship. Here are some practical as well as spiritual answers to help us find balance.

5 Practical Ways to Find Balance in Your Life

Please know I am a work-in-progress consistently implementing these steps in my life too.

1. Feed your body and soul.

Start every day with breakfast for your body and your spirit. This includes eating a healthy morning meal (not sugary cereal; think protein) and spending time in the Word. I know this is hard if you’re a mom with small children. You may have to eat your spiritual breakfast during nap time. It doesn’t have to be hours long either. Can you spare 10-20 minutes? It will be worth it!

2. Exercise your body and spirit.

I’m preaching to myself too. I do great for about two weeks and then something happens like travelling, and I am not good at getting back into the rhythm of exercising. But when I do, oh man, do I feel better! My muscles may be screaming at me, but my spirit is lifted, and I have more energy to do what I need to do. I suggest 20 minutes, 30 max. Doctors recommend working out at least 4 times a week, but personally, if I miss one day, I’m less likely to be consistent.

Walking is the best exercise. Get outside! Put worship music in your ears, and you are multi-tasking. Nothing else will lift your spirit like worshiping the one who told the sun when to rise while you’re walking through His creation.

Balance Heart and Home

3. Spend 20 minutes on household chores daily.

These chores may be on the inside of the house or the outside taking care of yard and plants. If I work a little bit every day on those chores, they aren’t such big mountains when the weekend comes.

4. Practice saying no to busy. (This involves humility.) We can’t do everything.

List all your extra-curricular activities/volunteer positions. Which ones are you struggling to continue? Those need to go. I’m giving you permission. Here’s a great article on tactfully saying no to volunteer opportunities or stepping down from one.

5. Take a day off every week.

It’s called a Sabbath. It means to cease from working, and in the Old Testament, the Sabbath lasted from sunrise to sunset. Intentional rest during the week demonstrates our trust in God’s wisdom, our obedience, and humility.  The world really won’t stop revolving if we take a day off. It doesn’t have to be on Saturday or Sunday, but we need a day set aside to rest. It is imperative to our balance. Work hard and then rest hard.

Scriptures about Life Balance

Practical steps play an important role in our quest for balance, but don’t take my word for it. Let the Word motivate your steps this year. The Bible gives life-giving advice regarding balance.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

Does this scripture give you grace in the balance? Does it help you see how important it is to live one day at a time and to balance the good with the bad, the hard with the easy. List the things in your life that were hard and how they changed in the next season. This can help stir hope and peace.

When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

Isaiah 28:24

If you kept reading this passage, the answer is no, of course not. The farmer plows the field, prepares the soil and then plants the seed. It’s good to ask ourselves what we’ve been so focused on doing, that we haven’t noticed it’s time to plant some seeds. We can’t forget to stop plowing and sow seeds of love, joy, peace, and grace.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!

Luke 10:40

The balance. We need to work, eat, and serve, but we also need to sit at His feet. Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the good portion and it will not be taken away from her.” We must make some extra time for Jesus every day.

Holy Spirit’s Help in Finding Balance

The practical steps are good. They will help find balance, and the Word will do that too, but we cannot do this on our own. We can’t climb life’s mountains balanced without God’s empowering grace by His Holy Spirit.

Ask for His grace when you find yourself unbalanced and near the cliff’s edge. God’s grace, His favor, will give you the wisdom, strength, and courage you need. When you feel out of control, stop. Take a break, and go to the mountain of God (the place of worship.) Listen for Holy Spirit’s guidance even in the smallest of  things on your “to do” list.

I want to live my life as Jesus did. He said and did only what God told Him to do.

Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does”

John 5:19.

 

Is that possible for us? I think so. We just have to practice His Presence.

A Prayer for Balance

We’ve talked about the practical things we can do, the scriptures that can help, and the importance of His Spirit leading and guiding, but we can’t forget the power of prayer. Before life spins out of control let’s start this new year with prayer for balance.

“Dear Father, help us. Help us live lives with Holy Spirit, grace-filled, and anointed balance. Open our ears to your voice and help us find time to be in your Word. We want to glorify you in all we do, but we can’t do that if we’re too busy and frantic trying to do it all on our own. Help us say “no” to those activities not ours to do. Give us humility, wisdom, and grace to live balanced lives. We love you. Amen.”