Final Thoughts

While I’ve been writing, friends have asked how long has it taken me to write this book. My usual response is that it has only taken a few months to write the book, but it took 57 years to live it. My students probably get tired of hearing me talk about balance, but I keep on stressing how important balance is. It is easy to go off on a tangent in a radical area on a subject. It is harder to understand a proper position that we can maintain and be counted on for. The only real answer to balance is to base our lives and our ideas on Scripture. Balancing life for me means making sure we work on each of four areas. First, we must work on our spiritual life, our relationship with God. If this area goes lacking it is impossible for successful life.
The twenty-third Psalm shows God’s continuing guidance and care in our life:
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Next, I believe we must work on our family life. No amounts of success in other areas will make-up for failure here. In fact, our family is the human reflection of our true relationship with God. He expects us to meet the needs of our family. Many times our spirituality is by us “being at church every time the door is open.” While I believe attendance and support is important, our family is first priority. Historically, God put the family together many years before He established the church. The third area is our work life. It is important, but in our things-oriented society, this area is over-emphasized. We can be the most successful professionals in the world, and if our family life or spiritual life goes lacking, we are a failure. The final area is our community life. For me this area includes friends and any time we give to make the world a better place. My largest commitment here has been my school board activity. God will give us wisdom in balancing these four areas. We need His wisdom to prioritize activities. I am reminded of one of Bill Gothard’s statements, “The good things are the enemies of the best things because of lack of time.” We must choose the best activities at a particular time from many good things.

As I close the book I hope it has given you a small sense of what God has done in my life. The great thing is He is not limited in His ability to grant blessings. The only limitation is that He can only build those that are His. In order to be His you must accept His Son as Savior. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

"Most of the critical things in life, which become the starting points of human destiny are little things."
R. Smith

"Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."
Proverbs 6:6-8