Dear Ones,
Hope you have a restful day! Al is going to be off to men’s group and I will have coffee and donuts waiting when he comes home. Hoping we see the sun’s face soon! This afternoon we have Bible study and our group is becoming close knit. Your question this week is, which aspect of your life do you struggle most to keep in balance… your body, mind or soul? How can you correct that?
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I think we have all heard others say how busy they are and the many extra hours they work a week. We wonder if they have time to even sleep! But our work does not justify our existence or significance. We were made for the Lord and we need balance in our lives between body, mind and soul. If we neglect one of them it throws us off balance.
It is good when we have time in the day for work, study and prayer, rest, and eating. Our physical needs are related to our spirit’s health, so we need a holistic life style. We all know what happens to us if we go overboard on eating, but we don’t always see the consequences of working without rest right away and may end up estranged from our family. When we don’t take time to rest, it stresses our body and emotions; we can get sick and irritable. We need to always leave time for prayer and it should not be hindered by our work. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said to his underground seminary during the Nazi years, “Without the burden and labor of the day, prayer is not prayer, and without prayer work is not work.” All of us need balance between work and prayer.
Just work won’t satisfy us or give us significance in life if we don’t have the God component. We are more than our jobs and we need to find what God’s calling on our life is. That is our vocation. Pope Benedict said that what we do is not as important as how, for whom, and to what end we do it. When our work is our vocation, it can become a means which God uses to cause us to love Him more and draw closer.  So many today evaluate a job opportunity based only on the salary or recognition and not on God’s calling. Let us pray that we find our calling and don’t neglect our body, mind or spirit.
Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you anywhere in your life you are out of balance and correct that.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy