For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about one word that kept coming back to my mind: balance.
At first, I didn’t really understand why this word was coming to me so often. I didn’t think my life was unbalanced. I have routines that are important to me, and I have always tried to be intentional with the things that matter.
So when this word continued to come to my mind, I started asking the Lord about it.
“Lord, is this You showing me something? Is there an area of my life that You want me to look at? If there is something I need to see, please show me.”
I have learned that when the Lord places something on my heart repeatedly, it is worth paying attention to. Sometimes He speaks through a verse, sometimes through a circumstance, and sometimes through a simple thought that He continues to bring back until we stop and listen.
I wasn’t looking for something wrong in my life. I wasn’t trying to find something to correct. I simply wanted to have an open heart before Him.
As I continued having conversations with the Lord about this, I started looking at different areas of my life.
What does balance really mean?
Was there something I was giving too much attention to?
Was there something important that I was unintentionally overlooking?
The more I thought about it, the more I realized there were some things in my life that I had always considered non-negotiable.
One of those things is my time with the Lord.
Every morning, I spend about two hours with Him. This time is very precious to me. It is not just a routine that I complete before starting my day. It is a time where I enjoy being in His presence, worship Him, write in my journal, reflect on His Word, and simply have a conversation with Him.
Those moments prepare my heart.
Before the responsibilities, conversations, and activities of the day begin, I have time to be still with Him. I receive His peace, His direction, and His strength.
This time has become a foundation for my day.
The other thing I have always protected is my time for exercise.
Taking care of my body is important to me. Exercise gives me energy, helps me stay healthy, and allows me to begin my day with a clear mind and strength.
Because both of these things are important to me, I have always treated them as mandatory.
They are not things I do only when I have extra time.
They are already part of my schedule.
If something interrupts my quiet time with the Lord or my exercise time, I notice it immediately. I feel uncomfortable because those moments are important to me.
But as I continued reflecting on this, the Lord began showing me something I had never really considered before.
He didn’t ask me to spend less time with Him.
He didn’t ask me to stop exercising.
He simply asked me a deeper question.
“What about the people I have placed closest to you?”
That question brought my family to my mind.
My first thought was, “But Lord, my family has always been a priority.”
And that is true.
My family has always been important to me. I love being with them. I love our conversations, our laughter, our meals together, and the ordinary moments that make up everyday life.
If they need me, I am there.
If they want to talk, I make myself available.
I have never viewed my family as something that comes after other things.
They are a gift from the Lord, and I treasure them.
So I knew the Lord wasn’t questioning my love for my family.
He wasn’t saying that I had ignored them or that they were not important.
He was showing me something much more subtle.
He was showing me the difference between priority and intentionality.
Until then, I had always thought those two things were the same.
If someone is a priority in my heart, then naturally I will be intentional with them.
But the Lord gently showed me that they are not always the same.
Something can be deeply important to us, yet we can still fail to intentionally make space for it.
That realization made me look at my daily life differently.
I had intentionally set aside time to be with Him.
I had intentionally set aside time to exercise.
Those things were written into my schedule.
But when I asked myself, “Have I intentionally set aside time just to be with my family?” I realized I had never really thought about it in the same way.
Not because my family was less important.
Not because I didn’t enjoy being with them.
But because I assumed it would happen naturally.
We are family.
We know each other.
We love each other.
We live together.
Surely there will always be time.
That was the place where the Lord gently began teaching me.
Sometimes we assume that the relationships closest to us do not require the same intentionality because they feel secure.
We assume they will always be there.
We assume there will always be another conversation, another opportunity, another moment.
And because of that, we can unintentionally leave the most precious relationships to whatever time is left over.
Not because we don’t love them.
But because we are comfortable.
The Lord showed me that comfort can sometimes make us less intentional.
As I continued having conversations with the Lord about this, another thing became clear to me.
There is a difference between being available and being intentional.
I have always been available for my family. If they needed me, I would stop what I was doing. If they wanted to share something with me, I would listen. I never wanted them to feel that they were not important.
But the Lord showed me that availability is not always the same as intentional presence.
Being available means someone can come to us when they need us.
Being intentional means we choose to make room for them before they have to ask.
That difference really touched my heart.
I thought about how careful I am with the things I consider important.
If I have planned my quiet time with the Lord, I protect it.
If I have planned my exercise time, I protect it.
But with my family, I had been relying on the assumption that there would always be another opportunity.
The Lord showed me that even though my family has always been a priority in my heart, I had not always treated my time with them as something intentional.
That was the balance He wanted me to see.
I also realized something about interruptions.
When someone interrupted my quiet time or exercise time, I often felt disrupted. Again, it was not because I didn’t want to spend time with them. It was because my mind was still focused on what I thought I should be doing.
I could be sitting with someone I love, but part of my thoughts were still somewhere else.
I was physically present, but I was not always fully present.
That was a difficult thing for me to recognize.
Because the truth is, we can be in the same room with someone and still not truly be with them.
We can hear their words but not fully listen.
We can answer their questions but not really engage with their heart.
We can be close physically but distracted mentally.
The Lord was not showing me this to make me feel guilty.
He was showing me because He loves my family, and He loves me.
He desires my relationships to reflect His love.
The more I thought about this, the more I understood that intentionality is an expression of love.
We are intentional with the things we value.
We make time for what matters to us.
We protect what we don’t want to lose.
This doesn’t mean every moment needs to be planned or scheduled. Family life should still have freedom, joy, and spontaneity.
But I realized that if something is truly valuable, it deserves a place in my life.
Even a small amount of intentional time can make a difference.
The Lord brought one simple thought to my heart:
“If you only have ten minutes with your family, those ten minutes can still be meaningful. But if those ten minutes remain optional, they can easily be pushed to another day.”
That really stayed with me.
Because ten minutes doesn’t sound like much.
But ten minutes of full attention is different from an hour of distracted presence.
Ten minutes of listening.
Ten minutes of laughing together.
Ten minutes of asking questions and caring about the answer.
Ten minutes of simply enjoying one another.
Those moments matter.
Since the Lord showed me this, I have been more intentional about putting time with my family into my schedule.
At first, it felt a little unusual.
I wondered if it was strange to intentionally schedule time with people I live with and love.
Shouldn’t it just happen naturally?
But then I thought about it differently.
I schedule time with many things that are important.
I schedule appointments.
I schedule responsibilities.
I schedule time with the Lord.
I schedule exercise.
Why would I hesitate to schedule time with the people God has entrusted to me?
Putting it on my calendar doesn’t make it less genuine.
It simply reminds me to protect what is precious.
Some days that time may only be ten minutes.
Other days it may be much longer.
The amount of time is not the main point.
The heart behind it is what matters.
I have noticed something changing since I began doing this.
I find myself enjoying the simple moments more.
I listen more carefully.
I am less concerned about what I need to do next.
I am learning to be fully present.
And through this small adjustment, I have seen the grace of the Lord in my family.
I see them differently.
Not because they have changed, but because the Lord changed the way I was looking.
I notice the small things.
I appreciate the conversations that may seem ordinary.
I enjoy the moments that I might have rushed through before.
I realize that sometimes the greatest blessings are hidden in the everyday moments we often overlook.
The Lord also reminded me of something important.
My intentional time with Him should not separate me from the people around me.
It should prepare me to love them better.
When I spend time in His presence, when I worship Him, when I allow Him to speak to my heart, the result should be a heart that reflects Him to others.
Especially to the people closest to me.
It is easy to think about loving people outside our homes.
It is easy to think about encouraging others, serving others, or responding when someone needs us.
But the people who know us best are often the ones who experience the overflow of who we truly are.
The Lord reminded me that my family does not only need my love in my heart.
They also need to experience that love through my attention and presence.
This lesson has changed the way I think about balance.
Before, when I heard the word balance, I thought about adjusting my schedule.
I thought maybe the Lord wanted me to add something or remove something.
But He showed me that balance is not always about changing what we do.
Sometimes it is about changing how we approach what we already do.
It is about asking Him, “Lord, are there areas of my life that I have valued but have not intentionally cared for?”
That question has stayed with me.
Because sometimes we can be faithful in many areas and still have room to grow.
Sometimes God does not point out something because it is completely wrong.
Sometimes He simply wants to take something good and make it even better.
That is what happened with me.
My family has always been a priority.
That has never changed.
The Lord was not asking me to love them more because I already love them deeply.
He was teaching me to express that love more intentionally.
Looking back, I am thankful that the Lord kept bringing that one word to my mind: balance.
I thought He was going to show me something that needed to be removed from my life.
Instead, He showed me something that needed more attention.
He reminded me that the people He has placed closest to me are not interruptions to my life.
They are part of the life He has given me.
I am still learning.
I know there will always be busy seasons and unexpected interruptions.
I will not always get it perfectly right.
But now I want to be more aware.
I want to be intentional.
I want my family not only to know they are loved, but to experience that love.
And perhaps that is the lesson the Lord wanted to teach me all along.
Balance is not about giving everything equal time.
It is about allowing Him to show us what deserves our attention in each season.
It is about making sure the things we treasure in our hearts are also reflected in the way we live.
I am grateful that the Lord gently showed me the difference between priority and intentionality.
It was a simple lesson.
But it has changed the way I look at my days, my relationships, and the people He has placed around me.
And I believe this is something I will continue learning for the rest of my life.