Life Is A Balance

 

I don't know about y'all, but lately my life has been full of reminders.

 

Reminders of how precious time is, and how little of it there really is. Reminders that my childhood is slipping away; and that soon adulthood shall be at my door, beckoning me into its world.

 

This isn't a bad thing., no not at all. Sometimes however I let it drag me down.

I mean, seriously...the time passes so ridiculously quick, does it not?! If you think on it too much it can get you in a mindset of serious depression.

 

If you think on it too much.

And forget to be thankful for the days you've already been blessed with.

 

 

Something else that's been on my heart lately has been the fact that so easily, things in life can get out of balance.

 

One particular activity takes center stage while more important things slip to the back burner.

 

Priorities get misplaced and suddenly you're wasting time on something completely NOT on the schedule.

Unfortunately, it happens oh-so-easily. Without even thinking about it, I manage to do exactly what I

'preach against', so to speak.

 

Lately, I'll admit that I've struggled with misplaced priorities. I've gotten on Facebook and spent way too long there - whether it be chatting with friends, commenting on other peoples' posts or even just scrolling the newsfeed. I've given it too many of my hours, and for what outcome? How will spending so much time on social networking sites benefit me - or others - in the eternity to come?

 

When I spend too much time "connecting" on Facebook, what better, more fruitful activities could I be doing instead?

 

I've also been considering how much time I spend blogging. I currently own four different blogs, and contribute regularly to at least two of them. This has occupied a good portion of my time as well. At least with blogging, I've told myself, I can see visible end-products. I can hope that my posts have touched y'all's hearts and pointed you to the Savior. I can hope that I was able to pass on useful information which might benefit you readers.

 

Still.

 

Which is more important - blogging about God, or actually spending time with Him?

 

Please note - I aim not to condemn anything or anyone, but only to raise some heartfelt questions.

 

If I were to say nothing else but a few more words, I'd say this: Life is a balance.

Everything we do, every choice we make - it's all about balance. You can upset the balance by misplacing priorities and putting important things on the back burner while more trivial items get center stage; or, you can maintain proper balance by making sure the more vital things are accomplished first. And if these things do get accomplished first, everything else will fall into place.

 

Once, several years ago, I was in a season of almost-too-abundant (wait...who am I kidding? My whole life has been way-too-abundantly blessed!!) blessing and I puzzled over why things were that way. Why had God given me such favor?

My mom gave me an interesting answer. "Because you've been putting Him first in your life". (paraphrased)

 

I still believe that all my years have been blessed incredibly beyond what I deserve. I do not exaggerate when I say incredibly blessed. It's just truth plain as that.

However, some days you feel the presence of God more than others. There were days when I felt His presence so incredibly often. I had joy that was indescribable. Sure, I had days when I fell out of whack and didn't give Him the time He deserved, but overall that joy was immense and oh-so-wonderful.

 

I still experience this joy now, but sometimes I wonder if I am subtly pushing my Creator away by the things I do - or don't do - in my days. The choices I make for how I spend my time affect my relationship with Christ. My choices affect my future.

 

Choices are so important. And it's all the more vital that we make the right ones. ANYTHING can be overdone, or had too much time/energy/thought put into it. Anything can be placed out of balanced, prioritized wrongly. Anything that is, besides God and His Word.

So, I know this was a rambling kind of post. Hopefully it wasn't boring or preachy-sounding to you. I have just had these thoughts on my mind and felt led to share them with y'all.

 

On a lighter note, summer is here and I can't wait to go to the beach in a few weeks. Above is a collage of photos from 4-5 years ago at our beach hotel we visit every year for our annual family reunion.

 

This one (yes, I edited it and put a filter on it *grins sheepishly*) was from 3 years ago.

 

Am I the only one who is loving this jumping-in-photos thing? My brothers and I did the whole shebang before it even got popular, as evident above. ^_^ I hope we can take some more fun jumping pictures this year too.

 

What are you looking forward to about summer?

 

Soli Deo gloria,

Nothing Left to Say

(Taken when I was 14- Sorry for a random, old picture, I'd upload something more recent and exciting except Blogger won't let me upload new photos for some reason. Grr....)

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I keep falling, I keep falling down/If you could only save me, I'm drowning in the waters of my soul/I'm giving up, I'm giving up, hey hey, giving up now.

Imagine Dragons' song "Nothing Left to Say" has really been hitting home to me in my life today. You know how some days go really well, others go simply awesome and, sometimes, you get a day that's about one degree away from utter perfection? I'd love to tell you that today I experienced one of those days.

But that would be lying.

Today was actually the worst day I've had this year. I don't know why exactly and the reasons I have figured I need not go into detail with. But I truly have been "falling down, drowning in the waters of my soul."

Without God, this could be true for every day of our lives. It's only when I get off track from His will that I find myself in this situation, drowning. I know that I've been doing some things which are not what He would want me to be doing, so I can only blame myself.

Do you ever feel like you've confessed to God the same sin literally hundreds upon hundreds of times? This is another thing I've been struggling with, and if not dealt with properly, it can eventually lead to drowning.

I've come to the position and conclusion that as the song says, it's true. There's nothing left to say.

The Lord didn't save me because of what I did, but what He did.

When I ask for forgiveness of my sins, He forgives me because His mercy is never-ending, not because of my mere human words or what I do to try and prove myself.

There's nothing left to say.

You just have to surrender to God, admit you were wrong and thank Him for His ever-so-abundant mercies. That's all. You don't need to go into lengthy detail, just ask His forgiveness, and mean it.

Ask Him to help you repent, and He will. But you have to LET Him. This is very challenging in itself.

And here's where we come to letting go, giving up.

"I'm giving up, giving up, hey hey, giving up now."

Give up those emotions of hatred, anger, resentment, bitterness, heartbreak, whatever they may be.

Give them up entirely. Don't let any smidgen remain in your soul. Let Him take them away, wipe your slate clean.

There's nothing left to say.

Through the Fire

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Corinthians 3:13

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when it felt like you were being tried?

A time when every event during the day seemed like a test, a challenge? I'm sure most of you have....most people do, at one point or another. It's really quite normal and expected, especially if you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes....it can be hard. You can almost feel the chastening of the Lord's fire as it dissolves each work, making known what each was made of. Each thought and intention, opened and dissected to reveal what was truly in the heart. "Every man's work shall be made manifest..."

Sometimes, this can be humiliating as well as painful. Many an instance, we don't want our Creator to see what's truly in our hearts. We know something's wrong, thus, we are ashamed and guilt-ridden. Many times, there is sin which is blatantly obvious to us, and it's no mystery or enigma to try and figure out what we're doing wrong.  It's spelled out in red letter, right there in front of our noses.

There's no hiding from reality.

Sometimes, though, the sin is not so obvious to us; and we may not even realize that we are committing it. This can be difficult to identify without YHWH coming in and removing the scales from our eyes. We may continue on for weeks, months, years even, thinking we are without a particular sin, and all the while, knee-deep in it.

Personally, I have been seeing more and more examples of this within my own life.

Recently, we had a friend's children over to stay with us while she and her husband were out of town for a family emergency. This was an experience I will not soon forget.

Let me make this known, I am certainly not perfect. That should've been obvious by now, anyway. But sometimes I think a little higher of myself than I should. I consider myself "too good" to do a particular sin, but guess who manages to always keep falling down again and again into the same wrong-doing?

Yep. That's right. Little ol' me. Miss "thought-she-was-way-more-patient-than-she-really-is."

Frankly, I never knew I could be such a nasty jerk! I always thought I was a pretty patient soul, patient enough, at least, but NEVER overly impatient and hasty to lash out. I guess wrong. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I think God personally peeled the scales from my eyes over this last weekend, chiding and reminding me of my sinful nature which I'd seemingly forgotten about temporarily. I think He was trying to show me once again about how imperfect I am on my own, without Him, and about how desperately I need His divine help to drag myself out of the morass of my sin. Actually, I could never drag myself out. He has to do the rescuing, not me. I can't rescue anybody. That's why He came to earth, to begin with. To rescue the souls of those He created. I am so thankful for His precious sacrifice....it would be a scary, scary world and horrific eternity, without it.

So...back to the topic of works being tried. Through the experiences the Lord let me go through this past weekend, I think He really did "try my works" and my heart. He showed me how impatient I have let myself become, and how I need to repent of this impatience. I gained priceless experience, knowledge and wisdom from this visit., and actually feel a few years older, too, haha. :) But, in a good way. It's a sobering, yet wonderful feeling to know the Lord opened your eyes to something He wanted you to see.

Even if it was a time of reproving and chastising. I am still very thankful for it and wouldn't dare think of looking back or wishing it didn't happen. (what does simply wishing do for anybody, anyway?!)

Have you been seeing God work in your life lately? How has He been pointing you to His ways and kingdom? What have you been learning lately about His will for your life?

Well, I need to be going now. Traveling out of town for the weekend for my dad's work, and need to finish preparing for the trip. :)

Hope y'all are having a very blessed summer so far!

Blessings,