One of the reasons I haven’t been updating MinistryFamily.com regularly for the past few weeks is because I’m in crunch mode to get my next book finished and out the door to the publisher. (More on the book in a later post.) Lord willing, I’m hoping to finish it today or tomorrow because I have a lot of blog post ideas drafted here that I’d love to start publishing for you all.

Here’s an excerpt from my next book that I wrote last week.

If you’re married and have kids, take care to give them the proper attention they deserve. Granted, there are periods of ministry when the church will demand most of your time, but those periods are probably fewer than we like to think — we just get sucked up into a lot of those periods when really we should be saying “no” a lot more often. Give your kids and your wife the attention, the time, and the energy they desperately need. And not just your left-over time, the time that’s remaining at the end of the day when you’re exhausted and the kids are about to go to bed. Sometimes that’s just the way it is, but make up for it in the next few days so they feel that they are more important to you than the church, than your ministry, and everyone else who is demanding your time. Everyone else can probably survive without you, but your family can’t. And too much neglect will have devastating consequences as your kids grow into adulthood. Regularly ask them if you’re spending too much time at church and for them to keep you in check. And give them the freedom to be completely honest with you.

QUESTION: Does your family have this kind of open communication about how you spend your time? Share one of your stories with us below!