Balancing

Balance. It's a beautiful thing if you can find it accentuating your life at any given moment.  Balance in your marriage, balance in your free time, balance in your diet and activities, and even balance in your friendships...it's all ever so important to our sanity, in my opinion.  God for sure knew that we prioritize and appreciate a good balancing act. Three boys, three girls, three with blue eyes, and three with hazel eyes.  Incredible, right?  And he added a beautiful addition to our family in April, who accessorizes with that special extra chromosome number 21. He has provided more balance in our life, then we ever could have imagined. He has taught us even more so to slow down and appreciate all the little things.  He clearly tells us not to take all of life's milestones for granted, but to celebrate each and every accomplishment.  And boy do we!!  I think that he also teaches us not to take time itself for granted. And without finding that balance in your life, time seems to get by even a little more quickly.  We can easily fill our days with activities that are not truly benefiting ourselves... getting us to be a better version of ourselves that is...or society.  But why is it so difficult?!  I think we have more temptations nowadays, to rob us of  our valuable time.  So many of us are consumed with technology (As I sit on my phone and blog), and achieving perfection in so many aspects of our lives.  We are a consumer society, so we spend so much of our time purchasing stuff, organizing stuff, throwing away stuff, donating stuff, repurposing stuff. In so many ways, we have so many luxuries at our fingertips, that we don't work near as hard as our ancestors. I think of my grandparents on the farm, and how hard they worked to raise their families, and live self-sustaining lives.  They hand washed their clothes on the washboard, cooked everything from scratch, grew there own vegetables, etc..  We have all this great technology to do the work for us, but why do we feel so rushed, and have less time!?!  Some of my favorite memories with our family are on vacation, when we squeeze into a tiny hotel room, and just hang out. I love sitting on the beach with them, without any agenda, and just having that time to talk, laugh, and play. They are our most precious memories. Going into the new year, and working more towards a more comfortable balance, I'm going to work on having more of those "vacation moments" in our own home, even if it's scheduling unscheduled time.  I truly think that prioritizing our Heavenly Father  first, family second, and the rest to follow, will naturally materialize the balance we need and thirst for in our lives.  Have you found your balance?