My guest today is Author Angela Breidenbach. Her publisher is offering a giveaway of her new release A Healing Heart: Quilts of Love series. So be sure to leave a comment. Angela shares something that I think plagues most women–how to handle the load of responsibilities we carry. Here’s Angela’s take:

Strength is in “No!”

 As a workaholic, I’ve struggled most of my adult life to balance family and work.

Recently the Fourth Commandment convicted me. Take a Sabbath? But I have so much to do! The Holy Spirit went to work. Could I follow nine of the ten? Ouch! I took it to prayer, “I am so sorry, Lord! Help me to honor all of your commands and write them on my heart.”

I found out a really good reason for my struggles after taking a test from the book, Strengths Finder 2.0 online.

God hardwired me with a combination of talents, experiences, and personality traits that create the perfect storm for workaholism—if they’re distorted. We humans distort every good thing God meant for our good, don’t we?

 The book helped me to understand my top five strengths and how they can also be a weakness. Not in any order: Achiever, Learner, Context, Futuristic, and Strategic. Looking at those words, can you already make some assumptions?

Getting educated, not only my strengths but how they can be misused, helped me understand how to better balance my life.

Because I love to learn new things and am an over-achiever and have a strategic brain, I often struggle with turning it all off. I’m constantly energized by new ideas I want to research and then strategically put into action—right now. A lot of people see this as a wish list, the level of productivity. But like Mara Keegan in my new release, A Healing Heart, I have to be intentional about time with friends and family. She gets such a sense of satisfaction related to her sense of achievement that it interferes with her personal relationships. Can you tell I wrote that part of me into her?

Have I beat workaholism? Not completely.

I’m a work in progress, pun intended. Anything can be misused, even a gift from God, according to 1 Corinthians 6: 12 (NIV), “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything…” Think about some of our cultures super stars. Some guidelines help me appreciate the strengths God wired me with and protect me from misusing those gifts and traits.

 What do you do if you have these strengths that easily slip into sinful workaholism?

Here’s what I’m working on:

1. Learn to say, “No!”

2. Schedule time in your calendar for relationships. Really. Grab your day timer.

3. Focus on how what you do affect others.

4. When the underside of a trait becomes evident take it immediately to prayer.

5. Give a friend permission to speak the truth in love.

6. Be transparent. Don’t hide your struggle.

7. Share God’s blessings by sharing work. Don’t steal a blessing from someone else.”–Angela

 Thanks, Angela for sharing so openly. With this amount of commitment, I’m sure with God’s help you will conquer your workaholism.”–Lyn

 

About Angela’s Book:

To puchase, click book cover.