B-A-L-A-N-C-E in 2014

How Do I Possibly Do Everything I Need To Do?

Learning How To Balance It All In the New Year...

Part of becoming an adult is learning how to prioritize your life and hopefully become responsible.  I think of high schoolers as young adults because already they are learning how to budget and manage their time responsibly between school, sports, family life, spiritual life, and social life, and perhaps even a part time job.

I absolutely loved becoming an adult, going to college, working, doing my course work, and really starting to look for a career I would love and be able to be passionate about.  The one thing I lacked in college was really having a solid foundation in the Lord.  I'm super thankful for mentors like Pam Zollner and Christy Weaver who prayed for me and were available to me to give me godly counsel when I disregarded my parents.

I think God really blessed John and I as a couple because first and foremost we put Him at the top of our list in every decision we made.  I am so thankful to our Pastor at the time, Pastor Joe, who counseled us monthly before we got married and helped us to think out and plan out the family we wanted to become.  Life was never easy...but it sure was blissful in the beginning just being the two of us those first 4 years of marriage before kids.  We call that time BC.  Before Children.  Our priorities always started with God first and then each other.  It was much easier balancing God, home, work, ministry and family.  I guess it was easy because our family was just the two of us.

I never knew how hard balancing everything would become after one child...let alone 3!  There is just so much to consider and plan, and think about.  And to top it all off...I am responsible not only for my decisions and my future...but the lives of 3 human beings!  It goes beyond so much more than just keeping your baby alive the first few months!

One thing that a lot of my friends and readers ask me is...Kristi, how do you do it all?  To which I humanly answer: I HAVE NO IDEA!  It is only Jesus!  Sometimes, my prayer for the day is simply this..."Lord help me to feed everyone, and keep everyone safe today, because I don't think I can do much else!"  Have you ever had those survival feeling kind of days where you just have so much on your plate, or so many great expectations for your day, and it's only 7 a.m. and 10 things have already gone wrong?

This year...in 2014 I will have a 6 year old, a 5 year old and a 1 year old!  And we will be 11 years married!  If that is not a great accomplishment in and of itself I don't know what is?  And not only do I love the man I married 11 years ago...I really, really, like him.  Those people who say that marriage only gets better with time, are very right!  You fall deeper and deeper in love and grace and you can laugh at yourself so much more, thank goodness, for laughter.

My prayer for this year is to continue to put God first, pray without ceasing, listen to godly counsel, speak the truth in love, be authentic, share God's grace and love with others, teach my children to love to learn and be the woman God has called me to be, and most of all be a faithful servant.  All that for me is going to push me into the best balance for 2014.  

I could make a longer list and say I am going to exercise more, read more books, take more naps, plan my meals more efficiently, serve more at church, volunteer in my community...etc, etc, but I really am starting to realize that if I faithful put God first and pray and ask Him to show me what He wants for me...then those things will just come naturally instead of forced.  And hopefully if God is urging me to do those things then I will really stick with them and not give them up after a week or two.

"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'--Matthew 25:23