You.

Enjoy life with your wife whom you love. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes nine, verses nine through eleven life is short, too short to be spent entirely on the pursuit of wealth and possessions that never satisfy and that cannot be taken with you when you die. There is no good purpose for exhausting yourself in the days of your youth so that you are completely spent and unable to move about and enjoy life in your retirement years. Better it is to balance work and.

Play all the days of your life.

So that you will enjoy the benefits of both and get more from each one.

When we work, we should work hard. When we play, we should play hard. We should neglect neither work nor play, for God has given us both as gifts, and we should endeavor to excel at both. After all, each of us is given but one life to live, and we don't want to squander it with either too much work that consumes us or too much play that makes us irresponsible.

The goal is a perfect balance of both so that both are enjoyed equally. We won't live in the here and now forever. The new heaven and earth that await those who are in Christ will be wonderful, to be sure, but there is no good reason why all of the joys and wonders of this present world should be carelessly and thoughtlessly discarded when God has given them to us to enjoy, no matter how brief the time to do so. Balance of labor and rest is our aim. Productive yet relaxed, enjoying both and finding the right pace is one of the keys. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, said Solomon in his wisdom. And as we learn from ASap's story of the hare and the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race. Part of a favorite poem titled thinking by Walter D. Winkle comes to mind as a good way to end this thought for the day. If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win but think you can't, it's almost certain you won't. Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man, but soon or late, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected] have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.