When I was a child, my mother was a big fan of moderation. I was allowed to have only one friend over at a time. I could participate in only one extracurricular activity per season or semester and I was permitted to do only one “fun” thing over the course of a weekend. Should one friend invite me to the movies on a Friday night and another invite me to the mall the next day, I had a difficult decision to make. It was either the movies or the mall. Both was never an option.
Naturally I hated this policy, but whenever I questioned the logic of these rules, my mother always said the same three things: “When three friends get together, someone always feels left out.” “It’s never wise to spread yourself too thin.” And my personal favorite, “I’m sorry Julie, but you can’t always get what you want.”
The older I get the more I realize my mother wasn’t being mean and it wasn’t that she didn’t want me to have a healthy social life full of things to do, places to go and people to see, but she was trying to teach me a very valuable lesson about keeping everything in balance. By pacing my activities and obligations at the time, she hoped I would choose my commitments wisely, stay fully engaged in the moment and not let my mind wander to other items on my agenda.
I wish I could say I heeded her advice, but I didn’t. Despite my mother’s example, I have spent the majority of my adulthood overworked, overbooked, overextended and overwhelmed. I am often pulled in 40 directions at once and sometimes, it feels as if my life is not my own. Although I know I can’t be all things to all people, I still find myself trying to be the perfect wife, mother, friend, writer, instructor and coach, but it’s a losing proposition. When you try to serve multiple masters, no one gets 100 percent. We can plaster a smile on our face and manage to fool some of the people some of the time, but
there is one Master who always knows the truth. The one who should come before all of our other commitments but is all too often the first one we jettison when we spread ourselves too thin.
However when we make the decision to serve Him above all things, he has a way of creating a sense of balance and moderation in our lives. He is the One who will fill us with peace in times of trouble, will renew our weary spirits and satisfy our souls in a way nothing on Earth can. It’s our decision and it’s not always an easy one to make. It’s either Him or our own selfish desires.
Both is not an option.
