Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We need balance in our lives.”
One of the keys to maintaining a good attitude is to have a life that is properly balanced in all the important areas. We need to take proper care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They’re all connected. If one area is neglected it has a negative impact on the other areas. So we must eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, nurture our relationship with God, and take the steps to manage our emotional condition and mental health.
Also, we must be sure that some activities are not allowed to so dominate our lives that they cause us to neglect other important areas of life. The obvious and most common activity that gets in the way of a healthy and balanced life is too much work. Americans tend to be work-alcoholics. We allow our jobs to consume so much of our time, attention, and physical energy, that it has a negative impact on other important areas of our lives.
This is so much of a problem in Japanese culture that their psychologists have designated it as an official psychological disorder and given it the name “Karoshi” which means, “Death from overworking”. We do this too. We allow our jobs to so consume our lives that it ends up killing us, or at least causing great damage.
Balance is essential. As human beings we are creatures of habit. We do best when we have a rhythm to life and patterns of living that we stick to. Getting out of bed around the same time every day; having quiet time with the Lord; eating nutritious meals the same time everyday; having an exercise routine that is scheduled and which you stick to; planning for and actually having regular times of socialization with the important people in your life; regular participation in the life of a good church; going to bed at the same time every night. A pattern of living like that is one which provides good balance and a comfortable rhythm of living. Those are the conditions under which humans thrive and do their best.
If your life is out of balance in any of those important ways then that lack of balance is having a negative impact on your attitude, and it is resulting in a life that less rewarding, less satisfying, and not as happy than it otherwise would be.
If balance is something you struggle with then an excellent Christian resource which could be helpful to you is the workbook “Boundaries” by Townsend and Cloud. I recommend it to you.
We need healthy balance in our lives. I encourage you to give serious thought to whether or not you need to make some adjustments in your life.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 