Balancing the Beautiful

My life is truly beautiful. Lately I have been overwhelmed at times with all of the blessings that surround me - A beautiful baby girl, a wonderful husband, a generous family, a safe home, a world of opportunity career-wise. There is no way that I deserve all of this and most days I am so thankful for the position that I am in and all of the beautiful things that surround me.

Then there are days when I am overwhelmed in another way - a negative way. How can I possibly do laundry, wash dishes, cook dinner, exercise, play with Lydia, put her down for all of her naps, apply for jobs and pursue my interests in one day?!?! It seems impossible, I get frustrated and grumpy and then things get ugly. Somehow all of the blessings turn on me and become chores or burdens. I enter into a place of being ungrateful; a place of perfectionism; a place where nothing is every good enough.

Looking back I would say that the greatest lesson that I have learned in my adult life is that of balance. I am all for being passionate and going hard and strong after your dream, whatever it may be, but I have also found that sometimes if you put blinders on and run straight ahead once you get where you are going it doesn't feel like you thought it would. I have seen first hand how you can put all of yourself into being "perfect" in one area of your life, and all the time another area is falling apart. I have found that the only thing that I can really dive head first into without being disappointed is the Lord, and His word and the love of His son.

And the irony of this pursuit is that when I am really trying to focus on the eternal and not worrying about the laundry, my schoolwork, my relationships, my future - that is when everything falls into place. When I surrender to the fact that nothing in my life will ever be perfect and instead just focus on balancing all of the opportunities and responsibilities I have been given I can find peace and joy in every day.

Through this blog I don't want to give the impression that I have it all together because I most certainly do not. However, I believe that God does and all that I need to worry about is glorifying Him through all of life's stuff. At this point in our life we do have a lot on our daily schedule, a lot of decisions about the future to make, a lot of people to see and a lot to lose. But my hope is that I will learn to balance all of these beautiful things so that I can truly enjoy them, and maybe along the way I can help you out there with balancing all of the beauty in your life too.

So there you have it - the new theme for this blog: Balancing the Beautiful. I hope you enjoy and continue to follow along.