1 of 1

Charles Sell has devoted his life to family ministry, including men, singles, and dysfunctional families. After gaining extensive experience as a Christian education director, he taught at Dallas Theological Seminary and for decades at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He also helped start the Asian Theological Seminary in the Philippines and was its dean for five years.

Husbands and dads, here are a couple of tips on how to free yourself up for what you really want to do:

• Accept the job but not the responsibility. It works like this: Agree to pack your son's lunch in order to free your busy wife to do other tasks. But don't fret about whether his lunch gets fixed or not.
  
  Your wife will remind you to get your job done. After all, she's better at keeping track of all these trivial matters than you. And eventually she'll get tired of reminding you; she'll decide to just fix it herself.
  
  
• Neglect the little things you're asked to do: fixing a kid's bike tire, phoning to say you'll be late, attending a soccer game. You can evade these as long as you're faithful in your big responsibilities, such as paying the mortgage.
  
  Family may argue that though their requests seem small to you, they are important. But eventually they'll understand they shouldn't bother you with petty requests.
  
  

HomeLife (4/03) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

 1 of 1

share this page

Prayer for the Week

You've called me, Lord, to the demanding discipleship of family. Empower me to worthily represent you there.

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter (All fields required)    RSS Feed   RSS Help