What’s your life like? Is it rushed and stressful? Do you have time to relax and enjoy your family and all aspects of your life? Are you content? Is it good but you would like it to be better? Do you wish you could change it but you feel overwhelmed and helpless? Is it just a “season” or has your life as it is right now become your “lifestyle”?
We all go through different seasons of life. As we age and go through the various stages of life, we often call them different seasons of life, but today I’m talking about something a little different. Let me give an example.
I just recently finished a very busy and challenging season of life (AKA- “grad school”). I’ll be honest, nothing in my life was really done to the standards that I would normally do it because I was so busy while in school. It was a lot to juggle. The house was never really organized or cleaned the way it “should” be (my standards—or probably anyone else’s at that point 🙂 ), meals weren’t always planned in advance and prepared like I love to do, ministry had to slow down and eventually stop— and even my coaching was kept to a minimal. There was a constant struggle between spending time with family or studying, I didn’t get workouts in like I had always done in the past, I didn’t have much time to just do fun, relaxing things I enjoyed—when I did, I had to pay the price somewhere else…. You get the idea.
Can you relate to that? It’s hard! It can feel like you’re spinning a lot of plates in the air and just trying to keep them from crashing down.
One thing that really helped me was knowing that it was just a season.
I knew that if I could just get through this season, it would change. Yes, it was difficult and felt like it would last forever some days, but I knew that it would eventually pass. It still made it challenging, but it allowed me to have a different perspective. It’s all about perspective! I had to change my expectations and let some things go. I had to look at my priorities and determine what was most important at this point in my life.
- What was my “WHY” for doing what I was doing?
- What were essentials that must stay?
- What could I let go of?
- What worked well?
- What wasn’t working well?
- What things could I let others do instead of doing them myself?
- What was the absolute “minimum standard” — could I do some things to just this level? Would the world end if I did? (It didn’t, by the way.)
I’m not gonna lie and say that it didn’t drive me crazy to see how some things were, knowing that I just couldn’t get to them the way I would have liked to. It did. But I kept telling myself that it was a season. There was a finish line. It would all be worth it in the end and then I could set new expectations and make things the way I would like them to be again. It was so freeing to finish school and know that difficult season had ended.
But, what about when the difficult season becomes the new normal — your new lifestyle? Have you been there? It’s just going on and on and you don’t see an end in sight. Maybe your pace is frantic, or you’re discontent with an aspect of your life, but you just accept it because you feel stuck. You’re very unhappy and stressed, but resigned to the fact that this is your new normal. It could be anything–those were just quick examples.
Take a moment and reflect on your life. How is it?
Are you in a season? Or is it a lifestyle?
Is it a good one? Are you happy with it? Does anything need to change? How could life be better? If you answered this question, what would you say:
- If _____________ were different, I would feel _____________ and life would be __________________.
Sometimes we’re in a season. Maybe we can change it, maybe we can’t. But it’s a season. We can adapt to the season and get through it. If you can’t change the season or circumstances, how can you change yourself in the midst of it?
Sometimes we stop and reflect and realize it’s a new lifestyle. Maybe we just slid right into it without noticing. Maybe we ran straight into it.
Whether it’s a season or a lifestyle: If it’s stressful and just sucking the life right out of you, there are ways to evaluate exactly what the reality is and then create a plan to make it work better for you. You don’t have to be stuck in a miserable life. God doesn’t want that.
John 10:10 New International Version (NIV)
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
What changes will you begin making today in order to live the life God would have you to live?
