Balance #lifelesson

A life without balance is headed for the cliff of disaster.

Sounds as if one of the greats made that comment about a simple piece of equipment in a children's playground. I mean who would have ever thought such deep life lessons could be gleaned from such a simple contraption? None of the greats did make that statement as I made it up. I believe the sentiment to be true. Without ever increasing balance, my life would skitter out of control very quickly. 

The longer I live the more I come to recognize one of the advantages, and curses of my heritage. I'm proud to be a Sandford, but I never realized until recently just how hard we work. This is certainly not meant to discredit other hard working individuals, but the frenetic pace with which I live my life even spins my head sometimes. I've had a couple of my graduate school classmates marvel at the many "balls" I'm juggling (work, school, pastoral ministry, new father-hood, graduate intern, husband, other). What they don't realize is, I don't think I have a very good balance in my life. Oh, I may be juggling those balls successfully, but when it comes to quality rather than quantity even that may be a challenge for me to evaluate. This is something I recognize and am seeking to address. It's part of the life-process of evaluating priorities, and then sticking to them.

 At the same time, I enjoy keeping busy. Now I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with keeping busy. What I would state is the motivation for why you are keeping busy may reveal more tell-tale signs than one might like to admit. Again, this is an area where I will need to cut-back as too often my "busyness" is a product of my desire to perform for others (dangerous path to tread).

This teeter-totter serves as a reminder of the balance I need in my own life. I was in Jerusalem, Israel when I took this picture and even then the lesson of balance was very much on my mind. Balance is so tricky, yet it is of the utmost importance! Without it I can so easily overextend myself, and then I'm not much use to anyone. What are some ways you try to balance areas in your own life?