If I had a quarter for every time someone told me how busy they were I’d be lending money to Oprah. If I had a quarter for every time I told someone I was tired or busy I’d be swimming in them like Scrooge McDuck.
The truth is if you are a husband or a father you should be busy. That’s what you signed up for. If not then you are not doing what God has called you to do.
Add to that work and ministry responsibilities and you really don’t have time for anything else. People ask me “What my hobbies are?” and I have to admit it’s whatever my kids are into at the time. Luckily I have a spouse who is into superhero movies as much as I am :)
After God family is the next highest thing on my list of priorities. Spending time with them and making sure they are being ministered to is a separate ministry itself. The thing is sometimes you can get caught up in all the bells and whistles of ministry and lose your family in the process.
I’ve heard of so many horror stories of pastors and their spouses caught in adultery and children who want to have nothing to do with God because they felt unloved. It’s scary. And so I’ve basically said not on my watch.
Instead of looking at the fam as an afterthought or a source of frustration I am now seeing them as my first church. This is where I am really learning leadership and what it means to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul says one of the qualifications for being an elder/overseer is to “manage his own household well (1 Timothy 3:10).
Why? Because the gospel is supposed to affect all of life not just Sunday morning and when the family relationships are rooted in Christ and what God has done for us it’s an attractive and compelling witness. So yes grind for Jesus but make sure that grind begins at home.
