Today, I want to share a bit more about diligence through the concept of BALANCE.

We often think of people who practice diligence as being workaholics, or at least so focused on getting more work done that they don’t know how to relax. Sometimes women who care tirelessly for their families or who feel driven to prove their worth in a certain career field fall into such a category. To the outside observer, they simply don’t know when to stop.

But the beauty of a truly diligent woman is found in one who knows how to work hard and well and also how to rest her heart and renew her body and soul.

I have known a number of such women in my life. Today, I would briefly like to describe two of them.

In one of my childhood communities, a woman and her family were long time members of our church. She had taught the youngest children in Sunday School for years and kept many children in her tiny house each weekday through a humble in-home daycare operation. By the time I met her, she was already a biological grandmother, but so many people in the surrounding area lovingly called her “grandma” too. I used to think she just worked all the time and never stopped, never slowed down.

BUT then, one weekend, my parents had to got out of town and they dropped me off at her house as a safe place to stay. It just so happened that weekend there was a bad winter storm so she and I were promptly stuck inside the house from Friday night onward. Early on Saturday morning, we got up and tackled several household chores. Yet, after a delicious, hearty lunch, she surprised me by declaring it was time to rest. And rest we did. She threw blankets in the dryer until they were toasty-warm. We wrapped ourselves and fluffy pillows up in them in side-by-side recliners and watched classic western reruns while fading in and out of naps for the next four hours. It was a sweet, drowsy day like I had rarely known. And while the wind and storm raged outside, I felt no fear nor worry. Only peace.

In my grad school community, I was honored to study under an advisor who had both personal and professional standards of excellence, yet who was immensely approachable and caring. She seemed to work endlessly to rework courses, meet with students, supervise interns, and complete writing projects.

BUT then, she surprised me one day when she told our research class about a family tradition. She and her husband (also a diligent worker) always dropped everything on Friday nights to make homemade pizza together while enjoying classic operatic recordings. More recently, he infant grandson had started staying with them on weekends and he would sit is his little seat and join in the fun. She spoke of that relaxing time with such joy, I could clearly see how it rejuvenated her.

I wrote of these two women in the past tense just now as I remembered them in those moments. But they are both still living, and I still love each of them. Thank you, Donna Hardy and Cheri Pierson, for teaching me the importance of balancing hard work with beautiful rest.