We’re on chapter 16 in our book club for The Virtuous Life of a Christ-Centered Wife.
The topic today is The Balanced Wife.
More information on the book club is found underneath the post. (View table of contents here.)
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It was dinnertime, I had just finished rinsing the pasta when I decided to call my husband. “Hey,” I said, “where are you?”
I usually ask that question because the drive home takes about 45 minutes. If I know where he’s at, I can gauge what time he’ll be home.
“Um,” he sighed, “I’m at the car dealership…”
Oh no. Yet another thing I forgot! I was supposed to meet him there at 5pm to give him a ride home. It was 5:15 and he was waiting for me across town.
Leaving the pasta to cool, I ran out the door calling back to my daughter, “I’m going to pick up Dad from the auto park, we’ll be back in about 45 minutes!”
Days like this are par for the course. I tend to forget everything. Sure, I try to write things down, but my problem is that I forget to check my lists.
If you tell me at 7 to pick you up at 9, I’ll probably forget by 8:00.
Someone once told me that every time a baby is born, they steal a handful of brain cells on the way out. And yeah–I can’t remember who told me that either.
And so I make do. My life is surrounded by post it notes, routines, notifications, and nudges.
Regardless of how forgetful I am or how disorganized I can be, I’m determined to live a balanced life. It’s a virtue because it’s an area of my life that I exercise to bring glory to God.
To me, a balanced life is first and foremost a grounded life. When we’re balanced, we’re not pulled in every direction. We’re not drawn away from the things that are important to us.
The thing is there are seasons. There are some seasons that are more difficult than others and there will be days when everything feels like it’s getting away from you. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it all. I’ve been there. When Graham was a sick baby, I slept in the hospital with him for nearly a week. I had two other kids at home, I was homeschooling, and my husband was running a fairly new business. Things felt unbalanced. I felt like our lives were out of control.
Were they? Not really.
We tend to view a balanced life as a laid-back, stress-free life, but sometimes the most balanced lives feel like they’re out of control. Balance is more about priorities than it will ever be about routine, laundry, or chore charts.
Those things are important in living an organized life–absolutely, but at the end of the day the question remains, “Have I kept my priorities straight?”
Did I honour God with my life?
Did I love my husband today?
Did I do the best that I could for my children?
Those are the priorities that ground us. When we put faith and family first in our lives we start to understand the reason that we do everything else. That’s when our purpose makes sense. That’s where we truly find balance.
You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
Let’s discuss chapter 17 on Monday!
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