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| Ballancing Work & Family Life Can Be Difficult By by Roy Milam
If you feel like it's getting tougher to balance all the competing pressures of life, you're not alone. In fact, more than three of every five workers find it difficult to balance work, life and family, according to a recent poll released by the Alliance for Marriage.
The costs of this hazardous imbalance can be steep: poor mental and physical health, low productivity and morale, marital conflict leading to breakdown, and too many kids who don't spend enough time with Mom and Dad.
In a nutshell, it's just not healthy, productive or beneficial for workers to be married to their job, and based on this troubling new data, maybe it's time to file for divorce. We should end this unholy matrimony for the sake of ourselves, our mate, our employer, our kids and our economy. I'm not suggesting you quit your job, just encouraging you to examine your priorities and if needed a take some practical steps to balance the scales of Work and Family.
Tips to Help Balance Work and Family Life:
"Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity..." Ephesians 5:15-16
- Understand the importance of drawing a line between work and home.
- When you first arrive home from work, give your spouse a big hug and kiss. Then spend some time talking together about how the day went. Don't do anything else til you do this.
- Make sure that you don't use the master bedroom for your home office. Consider making the master bedroom off limits to computers and televisions.
- Find a way to unwind from the office before you walk through the door at home.
- Sit in your car for 10 minutes a block away.
- Stop at a park to jog or walk.
- Work out a gym for a few minutes
- Listen to an audio book or music
- Stick to your scheduled work hours. It isn't fair to your spouse or your kids to work longer than expected.
- Sure, there may be times when you have to work than you planned.
just don't make the extra work hours a daily occurrence.
- If your work schedule will temporarily include longer hours for awhile,
make sure that you have at least one night during the week, and one
day during the weekend to spend time together.
Let's Pray-
Father, thank you for Your promise to supply all of our needs. And thank you, Lord for giving me the desire and the abilities to help provide for my family. Help me to give my employer a good day's work and to work with integtity. Show me how to keep work a servant to our marriage and family, not a master. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Why do marriages fail? While the answers to that question are many and often complex, there is a growing body of research suggesting that there are four negative risk factors- four negative behavior patterns that create barriers in a marriage and increase a couple's chances for marital failure. In one key studiy, researchers followed a sample of 135 couples for twelve years, starting before they were married, and were able to differentiate those couples who do well from those who do not, with up to 91% accuracy.* Crucial to the success of any marriage is for couples to eliminate or reduce the occurrence of these four risk factors. Previously we discussed Escalation* and Invalidation. Now, let's take a look at a third one - Negative Interpretations. "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).
God did a wonderful thing when He created man and woman so differently. The differences between man as male and woman as female were intended to usher in many special blessings (Genesis 1:28). Unfortunately, because of the fall, the blessings of the sexes became the battle between the sexes. The unique qualities with which God endowed each, now give rise to misunderstanding and conflict rather than completion and harmony.
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