Life can sometimes be a juggle. Managing work and our personal lives while trying to hold it all together can leave us feeling like we are failing in one or the other.
This was brought home to me a few weeks ago when my husband and I visited a family we know. From the outside looking in, they have it all together but on closer inspection, as they invited us to look beneath the surface into their inner world, just like so many of us, despite trying their best, “balls” were being dropped and, as a result, their stress levels were high. This, in turn was having a negative effect on their marriage as well
For the reality is that no matter where we fall on the wide spectrum of resources available to us, we all pay a price to achieve balance, which can look different depending for example, on the budget we have to work with or the amount of time we have available outside work obligations or even the degree of support we enjoy from family and friends.
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The changing circumstances of our lives play a role as well – a healthy work-life balance will look different depending on our age and stage of life, whether we have dependents, and the extent to which we can outsource or delegate activities to others. It has also been my personal experience that once we hit our stride after finding a new rhythm in our family life, something happens to shift the balance towards work and then we find ourselves having to find a new rhythm all over again.
A healthy work – life balance will leave us feeling less stressed and more fulfilled, with time to invest in relationships and activities that are important to us. Yet it is elusive.
Recently, a friend likened the tension between work and personal life to the act of walking – at any one time, when we are walking, only one foot will be firmly on the ground while the other will be somewhere mid-air. It is only when we stand still that we are truly balanced. But life does not stand still for very long, does it?
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There is a “priority formula” that we adopt as a family which guides us, especially when we feel that our lives do not reflect a healthy balance:
God first
then our Family
and then our Work/School/Studies
makes for a God-honouring and more balanced life.
To explain:
God should always be first in our lives and if He is, we will prioritise time to pray and read His Word.
Our Family unit is our second priority, and where there is, for example, a clash between a family member’s birthday and a friend’s birthday, we will prioritise our family over friends.
Our Work/School/Studies is our third priority, so while we encourage hard work and giving of our best in this area, we also don’t take kindly to for example, poor time management resulting in having to work late on a work or school project instead of celebrating a family birthday.
Of course, there will be those family emergencies that require us to leave work early or important work deadlines that keep us up for a few nights, but they are not the norm. Nor should they be.
Ultimately, we lean on God and His wisdom to lead us and direct our steps every day to better navigate the changing circumstances of our lives and to accomplish His purposes in our lives. For He knows us, and He knows the future (Isaiah 46:8-10).
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