{"id":1118,"date":"2016-06-15T19:42:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T19:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2017-09-22T19:42:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T19:42:48","slug":"establishing-balance-in-the-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/2016\/06\/15\/establishing-balance-in-the-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Establishing Balance in the Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Dorothy Halverson<\/p>\n<p>Balancing a busy life, particularly one that involves children, requires persistent thought, prayer, selflessness, wisdom, and yielding to God&#8217;s will. Recently, I asked several parents what balance in the home looks and feels like to them. They responded with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201ca warm sense of togetherness\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201ctime for Bible lesson study\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cengagement with our children, spouse, and others\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201chaving the ability to be flexible and to adapt\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cfeeling present with each thing I\u2019m doing, rather than feeling conflicted\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201ca true sense of peace\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Bible tells us that Jesus calmed the wind and the sea when he gave the command, \u201cPeace, be still.\u201d (Mark 4:39) What a promise this holds for each of us trying to balance family life with work and various other demands. When I seem to have a lot of projects to handle in a certain amount of time, I try to step back mentally and spiritually and ask God what needs to be done. When I am earnestly listening, I often discover that what I think is most important to accomplish is not always part of God\u2019s plan. I am learning to trust, and as I cultivate a sense of inner peace, I gain a greater sense of calm and dominion in my daily activities. As I work to glorify God in everything I do, I find that by the end of the day everything has fallen into place. Peace provides such a solid foundation for accomplishing that long list of \u201cto do\u2019s.\u201d When we operate from the basis of glorifying God, and from a desire to do what\u2019s best for our children, priorities become clearer because we have eliminated a lot of the extraneous clutter in our thinking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some practical ideas that parents have found helpful in establishing balance in their home include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>delegating responsibilities<\/li>\n<li>planning meals for the week<\/li>\n<li>creating a weekly schedule<\/li>\n<li>designating spaces in your home where young children can play safely and independently<\/li>\n<li>planning monthly date nights with your spouse<\/li>\n<li>establishing a specific time each day to connect with your spouse without television and other distractions<\/li>\n<li>spending some \u201cdown time\u201d during each day preparing your thought (e.g. reading Christian Science articles and hymns, reflecting, praying, and quietly giving gratitude).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the truly wonderful promises in settling for nothing less than peace and harmony is that life will take the shape that is uniquely right for you. Glorifying God in all we do brings a calm sense peace and balance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dorothy Halverson Balancing a busy life, particularly one that involves children, requires persistent thought, prayer, selflessness, wisdom, and yielding to God&#8217;s will. Recently, I asked several parents what balance in the home looks and feels like to them. They responded with: \u201ca warm sense of togetherness\u201d \u201ctime for Bible lesson study\u201d \u201cengagement with our &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/2016\/06\/15\/establishing-balance-in-the-home\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Establishing Balance in the Home&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritually-based"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/sites\/acorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}