Life Is A Balance

I learned about living outside the extremes when I was managing a temporary service while Dwayne was attending seminary. When I started working in the temp business, I interviewed many people every day. I would listen to sob story after sob story on how they needed a job. I was so excited to have a job that I could help people and took it upon myself to help them through this time in their life. I trusted everyone to be telling me the truth. However, I called people every day and listened to all kinds of excuses as to why they couldn’t accept the assignment or they would accept the assignment and not show. I got to the spot where I thought every person was lying to me and I trusted nobody. Soon, I realized that neither spot was a healthy place to be. It was important for me to learn how to live somewhere between these two extremes.
There are many things in life that have extremes which try to pull us their direction but the principal of success is usually learning to live between the extremes. We must learn to balance: obedience and grace, serving and boundaries, work and play, church and family, marriage and friends, confidence and humility, etc.
We are going to talk about one of these extremes for the next several days. It is the extremes of accepting the way God made us and being good stewards of the health that God gave us. It is hard to find the middle with this but either extreme can cause us emotional hurt. So many times we look in the mirror and we only see all the things we call faults. We belittle our self and think we are inferior to others. We find our self saying things like, “my husband would love me more if I could just be prettier!”, “Everyone looks better than I do”, “If God loves me, why did He make me this way?”, “I am getting so old, I wish I could be young again”. I agree it is sometimes challenging to see the wrinkles forming, the natural highlights glowing in the hair, and worse of all the facial hair that wants to take root on your face! However, there are certain unchangeable traits that God chooses to frame the pictures He wants to show with our lives. It has nothing to do with Him loving one person more or a person being more worthy. We each have a picture of God to show this world and He takes special care in choosing the right frame. Do you frame all your pictures with the same frame? I bet you don’t. Sometimes you need a fancy, ornate frame. Sometimes, you need a simple, rustic frame. Sometimes you need a small frame and sometimes a large one. Everything about you was handpicked by the loving hands of God. We have to learn to accept His plan and His love.
Can you do that? What do you see when you look into the mirror? Do you think God made a mistake when he created you? Let me assure you that a perfect God does not make mistakes. Maybe you have heard the old saying, “God doesn’t make any junk!” Ask God to show you how He sees you. Work on seeing the beauty God gave you and yes, He gave you beauty! Accept how God made you and stop talking negatively about His wonderful creation—which is YOU!

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking. Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was

sculpted from nothing into something.

Psalm 139:13-15 (The Message)