Work, finances, family, church, health, friends, hobbies—it can be hard to balance all the different aspects of our lives and make time for them, but the Spirit can guide us and Christ can magnify our efforts.
In my last semester working as a teacher’s assistant, a student asked me how I balance all the different demands on my time. How did I eat well, get all my homework done, have time for friends, make time for God, and get enough sleep at night? There are so many demands in our lives, and it can feel impossible to balance them all. In his BYU devotional, “Magnifying Our Precious Gift of Time,” Elder Jan E. Newman explains that finding balance literally is impossible. Different things will demand different amounts of time from us at different stages of our lives. He explains that we have to decide what is most important to us and prioritize those things.
But how do we decide what is most important when everything demands our attention? The most important things in our lives, as Elder Newman says, should be God, our family, and our work. For everything else, we must rely on the Spirit. Elder Newman counsels, “Knowing the voice of the Spirit will help you as you seek to know the will of the Lord.” God knows what’s best for us and can help us if we ask for guidance. We can be directed by the Spirit to make the necessary course corrections, big and small, for our priorities. If we put what’s most important first, then everything else will fall into place, though it might take some effort.
What happens when we try to do this and we still don’t have enough time? The answer to that dilemma is the Savior. Elder Newman testifies that if we rely on Christ, he will magnify our efforts. Christ can expand our capacity and make our minimal time enough.
I answered that balance-seeking student honestly: I told him I don’t balance things, that I’m always scrambling to keep up with all the demands on my time, but I do what I can every day. And in the end, even the lack of balance turns out alright because of Christ.
Since balance is impossible, we must put what’s most important first, listen to the Spirit for guidance, and rely on Christ to magnify our efforts.
To learn more about how to rely on the Spirit to prioritize, read Elder Newman’s talk, “Magnifying Our Precious Gift of Time.”
Source: BYU Speeches
—Elise Green, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
Find more insights
For more on the myth of balance, read Marianne Holman Prescott’s Church News article “Elder Bednar Speaks to Ogden Institute of Religion” where she reports on Elder David A. Bednar’s view on balance.
To learn more about how to prioritize your time, check out President Russell M. Nelson’s general conference talk “Think Celestial!”
To find more ways to manage your time, look at Christy Eck’s Latter-day Saint Insights article “Getting Things Done Without Time Travel: Five Ways to Manage Your Time.”
For more on how to balance what we can balance, read Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s general conference talk “Our Heartfelt All.”
To learn more about how to make God a priority, look at President Russell M. Nelson’s general conference talk “Make Time for the Lord.”