I am a blessed man. I have many titles in my life, artist, pastor, minister, speaker, teacher, but there are three that carry a more primary importance, husband, father and grandfather. These three titles are primary. It’s really easy to let the first five overshadow the last three and I have been guilty of this many, many times. That is a huge mistake. Those last three titles represent my primary ministry. My marriage to my wife is of huge importance, and that relationship colors all the rest. My effectiveness in all other area if that one relationship is not doing well. God has also blessed me with two great sons. Again my marriage is of primary importance in these relationships. This was of utmost importance in their childhood, but even now as they are grown, their mother and I still have much to model for them. And then there is the great blessing of my grandson, David John, who always puts a smile on my face.
One of the main things I have to model is how the ministry effects my relationships. Show them through my actions, that the ministry is more important than them and I will tarnish their opinion of the church and the God I serve. It’s a tight rope, balancing act and one that we who minister all have to navigate, because here’s the thing: I think we all want to serve well. We want to honor God with our lives and do the very best we can for the people we serve. There is a very real temptation at times to push our primary relationships to the back burner thinking I’ll make it up to them later. This is usually not the case because later keeps getting later. Any career can cause this to happen, but those of us in ministry have to be especially careful, because how we handle our priorities has a great chance to reflect on our God.
By the way that is our primary relationship. If we learn to keep God in first place, all the rest will fall into place. Please remember God and ministry are not the same thing. Our relationship with God is different from what we do ostensibly for Him. Keep Him first and your loved ones second and after that, let everything else fall into it’s natural position. In our relational lives priorities are tremendously important.
Please learn this from me. I learned it the hard way.
God bless, and happy Father’s day to all the dads and spiritual fathers out there.
AMOKArts 