Jesus: An Example of Balance in Life

Guest post by Sal, a member of the LDS Etsy team.

I was listening to a church lesson on Wednesday and loved how the teacher explained a scripture. It left such an impression on me that I would like to share it with you.

"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." -Luke 2:52

This is one of the only scriptures we have mentioning the Savior's childhood years. I love that it mentions that he had to increase and grow too, just like all of us. What surprised me is when the teacher drew on the white board a diagram similar to this one:

He then went on to explain that, as the scriptures says, Jesus deveolped and grew in four areas:

1. Wisdom

2. Stature

3. Favor with God

4. Favor with man

We too must strive to grow in all of these areas. It is really easy to get fixated on one, however. For example, some people spend too much time in the "stature" area and focus mainly on their appearance or physical fitness. Some people spend too much time in the "favor with man" category focusing mainly on social outings, conversations, and text messages. Some people spend too much time seeking wisdom and don't interact with others as much as they should. I suppose you could even spend too much time in the "favor with God" category if you never helped or interacted with other people. The list of possible imbalances goes on and on.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, was the perfect example of true balance in life. He served others, sought wisdom, kept his body healthy, and had a close relationship with God. I know that as we strive to keep our lives in balance, we will be blessed.

Challenge: Follow Christ's example and keep your life balanced in those four areas.

Comments

Anonymous said…

This article helped strengthen my testimony. Balance is truly important in our lives.
Constance

November 25, 2013 at 7:18 PM

Pray Always

Last week I shared powerful scriptures to remember when faced with temptation. However, the devil is very powerful as well. We need a lot more tools than just a scripture to defeat him. The most powerful tool available to us is prayer. Brigham Young said, “Prayer keeps a man from sin. Sin keeps a man from prayer.” Prayer keeps a man from sin The Lord admonishes throughout the scriptures to pray always to avoid sin: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38) “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5) “Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation” (D&C 20:33) “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation and lose your reward” (D&C 31:12) “Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in lif...

Preach by the Spirit

ldsclipart.com I'm a writer, editor, and linguist. The words I choose and how I organize them are very important to me. That is why I prefer expressing myself through writing over any other method. I also enjoy public speaking because sharing my insights is exciting. I prepare my speeches, talks, and lessons in advance so I know exactly what I'm going to say. Church talks I always write out word for word to ensure I don't forget anything and so it's coherent and cohesive. As a teen, I would practice my talks until I practically had them memorized. Due to the increased focus on making the Sabbath a delight and sacrament meeting more spiritually fulfilling, our branch president told us he wanted us to have only an outline for our talks and to lean on the Spirit for guidance. Only once have I ever used just an outline. It was September 2006 in my college ward for a talk about how to prepare for general conference, a topic easy to expound with just notes. Two week...

How to Know if the Book of Mormon Is True

photo from lds.org A previous set of elders put me on the 12-week course for new missionaries. Last night as I was finishing up the week on revelation through the Book of Mormon, I came upon this study activity: Read Moroni 10:3-5 and discuss how these verses show what an investigator must do to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Discuss the meaning and importance of real intent and how to help investigators develop real intent. I considered skipping it since I had read that scripture passage countless times, especially with studying Preach My Gospel , and because the discussion seemed to focus on real intent, which had been covered thoroughly in that week's study. But I decided to humor myself and do it anyway. And what I learned surprised me. There are actually four steps an investigator must complete before asking God with real intent and receiving an answer: Read the Book of Mormon. How can we know if something is true if we haven't even read it? We have to b...

Brightening My Light

Search This Blog