The Great Balancing Act

 

 

        As a singleton, I learned the hard way that you have to learn how to balance things in life.  At times, I would overbook and over commit myself to obligations that would leave me feeling exhausted after attempting to do it all.  I learned that sometimes you just have to say No so that you can devote the proper time and attention to more important things in life. Before I got married, I had come to some sort of balance with my time and attention and was comfortable with it.  However, after Mr. Awesome and I jumped the broom, I found myself needing to relearn the balancing game all over again.

 

         Going from being a singleton to being a wife was a blissful transition.  I was super excited to go from living for one to living for more than one.  However, I did not anticipate the tough road that it would be to transition from living for one to living for two and three instantly.  I easily figured that adjusting to a spouse and child at the same time would be a piece of cake.  Let me tell you that was a big piece of cake.  I suddenly found myself not only trying to be the Proverbs 31 woman who was a wife of noble character, but also the Proverbs 31 woman who was trying to navigate the tricky road of being a non-traditional mother.  Since I felt fairly comfortable with taking on the role of being a wife, I begin to make the mistake of putting much more energy into proving my adequacy of being an instant mother.  I learned quickly that my attempt to perform this type of balancing act was terribly unbalanced and I got a serious wake up call.  Initially, I was putting more energy into keeping up with a schedule that (in my opinion) was too busy for a 13 year old than I was into pouring into my primary ministry outside of God, my marriage.  On top of my personal quests such as my career, personal endeavors, and being a homemaker, I felt like a fast spinning wheel that had come off its axle.  I began to look at other wives and mothers who "appeared" to have everything under control and wonder why was I always so tired and in need of a nap.

 

      It was during my wake up call that I decided to put things back into the rightful order that they belonged, putting my marriage first after God while everything else followed.  Although things ran more smoothly this way, I wish that I could say I have mastered the new balancing act in my life.  It is something that I continuously pray about, especially now that a new dimension to our family dynamics has further challenged the balance that I was already trying to solidify.  So here I am relearning this new balancing act.  With more prayer, I know that I will get it.