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Continue ShoppingElder Bednar Teaches Latter-day Saints About Balancing Life, Church, and More
"There's no such thing as balance," said Elder David A. Bednar as he shared an object lesson on Facebook to Latter-day Saints.
In his post he wrote:
Sometimes we reflect on all of our responsibilities at home, school, work, and church and wonder how we can achieve a balance among the many competing demands on our time. Instead of driving ourselves crazy trying to do everything at the same time, we should identify the few fundamental things that are our highest priorities. We then can strive to give each of them the attention they need—one at a time.
When you are at home, choose to make home the priority. When you are at school, choose to make school the priority. When you are at work, choose to make work the priority. When you are worshipping at home or at church, choose to make worship the priority.
It may sound simplistic, but we should not get frustrated and waste effort and time trying to achieve a perfect equilibrium among all of the important things we need to do. As we pray sincerely for God’s help to identify what matters most, He will guide and assist us to focus our efforts day by day.
When asked how can Latter-day Saints have a balanced life, he says:
“I have what perhaps many would think is a very unusual answer, and that is ‘Quit worrying about it because there’s no such thing as balance. It doesn’t exist,’” Elder Bednar says. “We can only do one thing in a given moment. So in the moment that I’m attending to my family, I’m neglecting church and employment and maybe even myself. When I’m exercising, I’m neglecting some things. And we can drive ourselves crazy if in every moment we’re worried about all the things that we’re not doing. We never get anything done then that really matters. So if I’m at home, I need to be at home. If you’re serving in church, then be engaged in service.”
He then gives the following advice:
“Identify the two, the three, the four most important priorities in our lives, and then make sure that we are always returning in time to make sure that each one gets the spin that it needs,” Elder Bednar says. “That imagery may sound silly to you, but I hope it’s helpful. Don’t, don’t spend all of your time trying to achieve this perfect equilibrium because it doesn’t exist. Focus on the things that matter most in the moment, and you’ll have the Lord’s help to be able to juggle and attend to all of those important priorities in your life.”
