Podcast Episode 08 - How To Balance our Personal, Ministry, & Family Time

In this week’s podcast, we want to give you four more thoughts on balancing your personal life, ministry opportunities, and family time. This builds on our previous blog post this week, where we shared our first four thoughts on this subject, which were:

• Remember where our power in ministry comes from.
  
• Note that each day contains only 24 hours – we can’t do it all today.
  
• While ministry is life long, our kids are only in our homes for about 18 years.
  
• Pastors can set an example of a balanced life for the rest of the congregation.
  

Now, here are four more life balance thoughts:

1. Communicate clear boundaries to your church family and leadership. They need to know when our office hours are and how many hours we will and won’t work. They also should know which day we take off every week. We need to remind them that we are not the only minister in the church, they are all ministers and lay ministry involvement is a must. Finally, we should share with them what we see as our spouse’s role in the church. We also should get input from our spouses about how we are doing managing our time with family. Let’s stay open and up front about how we’re doing, and make sure we are making deposits into our family members’ emotional bank accounts.
2. Respect the rhythms of life. We should know our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythm. If we come through a particularly grueling season or month, then we must compensate with a lighter schedule to follow for rest and renewal.
3. Define reality and be honest with yourself. If the dials on the dashboard of our life are lighting up, flashing, and blowing out, we need to pay attention to them, and get our equipment serviced right away. If we just power through thinking we are being exceptionally strong people, we run the risk of emotional meltdown, depression, or disease.
4. Sharpen the saw, rest, and retreat. If the ax needs sharpening, get it sharpened and then get back to work. When a job is done, celebrate it, and take some time to rest.
   

We hope you enjoy this podcast and are encouraged and inspired by it!