F-A-M-I-L-Y

I've got a thousand things to blog about, but there's one thought I just can't get out of my mind. So, here it is.

I went to a women's retreat with my sister last week. We sat in a lecture about "motivation." I was pretty optimistic about it, signed us up for it, because my sister wanted to be more motivated in her life.

Well, it was a disaster. The guy went on and on about how Jesus should motivate us to do everything- the laundry, to work out, etc. My sister is not a Christian so she was quickly unmotivated by his schpeal. I tried to listen and take something away from it.

But he told a story that was ridiculous. It made me feel that this guy, this speaker, had no idea how his priorities should be. He told a story of speaking at this women's retreat years ago when his wife was pregnant. He really wanted to speak and thought it was so important that he asked his wife if he could speak instead of be at the hospital when she delivered. His wife said it was okay.

And he spoke at this women's retreat while his wife gave birth.

Something is wrong with this. The priorities are all askew, at least in my view (if you see it differently, let me know).

Later on the trip I was talking with a sibling who will not be able to make it to my law school graduation or Spud's baby blessing.

Now, I've been guilty of not attending family events. Because we live in Texas and I can't afford to fly up all the time for the events.

But my sibling couldn't make it because of cost. Admittedly, they could drive. But time off work was the issue. Because 75% of their vacation time is reserved for a church calling.

After the experience at the retreat, this rubbed me the wrong way. Normally, I don't think that it would bother me. But that speaker made me feel like sometimes we get things all twisted around regarding our family. Is it too much to ask for one year, one time to forego a church calling? At what point do we put our family first? When it's convenient? When we can afford it? When it doesn't conflict with other our opportunity to lead and help others?

Still thinking about this. Not sure I have an answer.