The great juggling act

Editor's note: We are blessed to introduce you to another guest blogger, Mary May Larmoyeux. She is a writer for FamilyLife as well as an author and speaker. We hope you enjoy her words of wisdom!

by Mary May Larmoyeux

Recently, while attempting to open a door to the office, I juggled my purse, a present to be mailed, a sack filled with old newspapers for a friend (or maybe I should say for a friend’s dog), and some files that needed to be returned to work. The handle to the brown paper sack broke and …

Juggling—can you identify?

Maybe you’re a young mom with kids at home. You’re running carpool for kindergarten, paying the family bills, trying to keep your newborn on a feeding schedule, and doing laundry … and more laundry. Probably the question you hate the most is when your hubby looks at a messy house and asks you at the end of a long day, “What have you been doing?”

Or, perhaps you’re trying your best to focus on what’s eternal, while working full-time in an office by day and full-time at home by night and on weekends. After cooking dinner and helping Junior with homework, you often fall into bed completely exhausted.

I think that balance should be a mom’s desire—making God and her family her first priorities and admitting her juggling limitations. We can simplify our lives as we practice the fact that we can’t be all things to all people at all times.

“Okay, Mary,” you might be saying, “That’s easy to say, but how about putting some shoe leather to those words?”

Well, there’s a verse in the Bible (Ephesians 2:10) that tells us that God Himself prepared specific works for us to do. No, not just works—good works. My job as a wife and mom is to know God so well that I actually choose the activities and jobs that He has specifically designed for me. He makes my paths straight as I spend time in His Word, ask His advice, and follow His leading.

Quite frankly, a lot of times finding the right balance is really hard for me. It means that I have to say “No” to some of the good things that I really want to do in exchange for the best things that God has for me … wonderful things to come that I might not even be aware of.

Our country and world need genuine supermoms: women who get their marching orders from the Word of God and not from the evening news. Women who ask the Lord to help them choose the right priorities for their unique lives.

In my book Help for Busy Moms: Purposeful Living to Simply Life, I asked the following questions:

• Read Luke 10: 38-42. Why did Christ say that Mary had chosen what is better?
• What are my goals for today? For this week? For this year?
• Which goals are realistic? Why do or don’t my goals match God’s desires for me? (If you are married, discuss this with your husband.)
• An old Chinese proverb says, “The glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time you fall.” How can remembering this encourage you today … this week… this month?

What does God want you to do to bring balance into your unique juggling act? I'm asking myself the same questions.

Comments

[Tiffany]

Sounds like a great book! Wisdom indeed! I can certainly identify with the juggling act. When I find myself overwhelmed or spinning my wheels, I pause, renew my mind and seek God's purpose then I have peace while juggling everything at once.

[Mary May Larmoyeux]

Hi, Tiffany. Thanks for your comment. That's great advice to think of that overwhelmed, spinning-wheel feeling as a singnal to pause and seek God's purpose and peace.