The Secret to a Balanced Family Life

OK, I am getting this question a lot lately so I think its time to speak again on this subject. The question goes something like this, “How do you give your best to other people in ministry while not ignoring your own family and their needs in the process?” Fortunately, I have an answer for this: Calendar Control.

Sherry and I LOVE our kids, but we believe that the key to their security is for them to see us captivated by a growing love. This romantic covenant relationship is for them a prophecy about their own future marriage being a great one so we have to put our relationship ahead of even the parent-child relationship for everyone’s sake. So Sherry and I block out an hour each day at the end to process our day and relax over a cup of tea or something similar and just talk. One day a week we take 4-8 hours off to be together. Once a quarter we go away and overnight. Once a year we take a week off together–all without the kids or any other couples and all without doing ministry. We have kept this routine for over 15 years and it has kept us close to each other so that we have the necessary resources then to minister to our kids and others. The first step in making our year’s calendar is to plot these dates and others related to the kids, then we pile on strategic ministry commitments.

Sometimes we are facing a challenge…like packing the house up for the move back to Thailand–and we just have to grunt our way through it and push on, but in the middle of the pressure we still took two days, rented a Harley and cruised the early Fall colors in the smokeys. Then, we returned to the packing work refreshed and didn’t ruin the last week of our time in the USA bickering from the pressure that was upon us.

Calendar control has saved us from burnout while also insuring that we make a sizable strategic commitment to ministries and lives we feel drawn to. Try it in 2010 and see what this can do for you.