Before we get into this episode, I just want to remind you that this is a hard topic because it will look totally different depending on what your particular situation is – what your husbands role is, what your own role is, what life is like inside your particular church, what city you live in, how many kids you have… all play in a role in the answer to this question. What I’m giving you today is what I’ve learned from our years in ministry and from my point of view.
So the question is this – how do you balance time between serving your family inside your home and serving or ministering to others outside of the home? It’s an age old question for many families. But also one that’s ever changing and evolving as church culture, ministry expectations, family expectations and other things change as well. And ultimately only you and your family can answer what this will look like in your home, because it’s truly such a person to person topic depending on what your life is like. However – I will give you my best advice and personal opinions on the topic from where I stand.
Here’s the thing – from my point of view there’s a LOT of pressure on moms in the church. Whether you work in ministry or you husband does or your family is just really involved and giving of your time when it comes to your church family (which is awesome) – there’s a lot of pressure on moms, mostly because in many cases moms are the ones wearing the most hats. It’s very likely that in addition to your role or your involvement in the church, you’re taking care of one or multiple young children, you’re taking care of your home by grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, you’re likely handling the family’s schedule and things like dr appointments and soccer games and preschool events, and you may even work from home or out of the home as well. I’m gonna just go ahead and guess that your plate is a FULL one. And if you’re children are babies or toddlers, you’re likely barely finding time to shower – nevermind perfectly execute all of the other things you need to do. And I assume that your ministry involvement, whatever that looks like, feels very important to you. Which is wonderful, and says so much about your heart to serve others. HOW.EVER. With that comes years of expectations you have placed on yourself (or maybe others, or the culture around you) about exactly what ministry must look like, when it happens, where it happens and how often it happens. But when you’re adding your family, or even if you just have things going on at home that make it hard for you to continue in the habits that you were originally in, it often requires your time spent pouring into those outside of your family to be cut back. The problem is.. I think for many of us.. we subconsciously hold ourselves to these CRAZY expectations of where we should be spending our time and it’s not realistic or helpful. Listen, I can’t speak directly to your situation. But what I can do is be your loud and obnoxious reminder that YOU CANT DO EVERYTHING! And if you try, you won’t do ANYTHING well. If you are a mom of young children.. that is where (I assume) your priorities lie (behind your husband) and your time should reflect that. This may need to be a season where you step back and away from many commitments that happen outside of your home. I think many of us believe that we’re not good Christians if we’re not taking care of our home and our families, and we’re leading a bible study, and we’re at the church serving 3 nights a week, and we’re volunteering every Sunday morning AND we’re hosting dinners AND we’re etc etc etc, oh my gosh. Just stop. So let me say it again. You can’t do everything. And if you try, you won’t do ANYTHING well. Not to mention the fact that ministry is so much more than events and group gatherings. We live in a world where church programming is taking over everything. Our churches have turned into businesses and we’re just so caught up in event planning that I think w...
view more