Life Lesson #4 Your Job ...

#4. "Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch."

You would think this one is easy… a real no brainer but in reality there is this behavior that hurt and wounded people do and I lovingly refer to it as caving. I did it. For about three years I simple detached myself from everyone outside of my home and I got sicker and sicker. I remember a dear friend banging and ringing on my door and I just simply couldn’t answer. Couldn’t face the questions or even the answers I would give.

I worked through this and though the people were great they just didn’t know me or have any idea of the turmoil I was in. I finally broke through, with the help of some pretty amazing persistent family and friends who couldn’t take it anymore. Where is the S we all know and love. Yeah, it was a bit of a long road but now, as I look at it, one well worth travelling on. I have no regrets about that time. I know that my body shut down so that it could conserve the energy it would take to recover.

I struggle with knowing what I want to be doing and what I am doing. I work long and hard hours and try to balance what is left of the family I still have at home. It’s crazy, this life. I am so glad that most of my kids were grown before I had to work full time. I really have no choice here without any financial support of the ex. Big D understands and all I want for him is to be happy. The sacrifices we are making and the decisions that have to be thought through for wants and needs are all making him a stronger kid. He may not understand it now, but he will later.

I went through a period of time just last year where I got very sick and needed surgery. It was my family and friends who supported me through it. They were there for me and I am ever grateful for that.

I see men sacrifice their families and their lives working 14-16 hours a day all in pursuit of leadership and prestige. I lived with someone who added to that the pursuit church leadership. Where is he now? He achieved everything he wanted at the exclusion of what this life and our HF wants most for us; our families. If I might admonish one thing and one thing only it is the belief that a good man always fills the needs of his family first. He will support and love those to whom his HF has given him accountability to. His desire to lead will be fulfilled in the role he plays as a father and his example is what will lead to leadership, not his pursuit. Great leaders come out of these circumstances. The best church leaders are those who know their priorities well.