Encouragement for the NEW YEAR!

         Over the course of this year you will dig deeper and deeper into these four quadrants of your personal life. As you grow, your quadrants will grow. As a high school student transitioning into college or a college student transitioning into the workforce and adult life you will see that your quadrants aren’t very big to begin with. I call what I listed above the big four: Your Spiritual life, Financial, Time Management, and Goal setting are your key areas of your personal life. As I stated before, as you grow, you will expand these quadrants into what fits your needs as an individual.  These four quadrants will network themselves into other areas of your life. For example your time management might deal with your social life, your goal setting could be integrated with your education or work, and your finances affect everything in your life. Your spiritual life should be the driving force for all of these areas.

        We have all heard that practice makes perfect and if you work hard you will be successful and that in the end you will rise to the top, right? Let me ask you this, what if the practice that you’re partaking in is actually an imperfect standard? See people all across the world believe that if they’re good and do enough good actions in their personal life (without giving Christ glory) that good things will happen to them. This logic is partially correct and does make sense to a point but here is the real truth to it, for a Christian. God made you; He made you to do great things throughout your lifetime. You’re made in his image: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Gen 1:27). God has also given you certain things in your life for you to be a humble steward of. This is where the big four come into play. If you master these key areas that God has blessed you with and you give HIM the glory, you will see your growth as a human being skyrocket.   Once you’ve surrendered your personal life to Christ, your outlook on life will change and I hope through the course of this year that God will use this to change your outlook as he has me.

          Now you can actual focus so much of your life on just one of these quadrants that you throw off your entire life. Imagine an old carriage wheel. That carriage wheel is connected by something called a spoke.  Now if one of these spokes that are holding the wheel together breaks, then the whole wheel breaks! This is a picture of YOUR life. If you focus so much attention on partying and relaxing then your grades, job, and spiritual life will suffer greatly. The same goes for focusing so much on work or school. If you focus 24/7 on school and your work then your social life and relationships will suffer. God designed us to exert balance in our lives.

                       Remember to exert balance in your life this next year. Set goals that stretch you, invest in others around you, and give God the glory in all things. Faith in God removes all limitations.

-SLB