The Price of Time and Love: Stories Of Boundaries And Balance
1. Can I Buy Some of Your Time
A businessman who worked very long hours arrived home one
evening to find his 7 year old son waiting for him at the door. “Daddy?”
“Yeah?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?
“Well son, I don’t really think that’s any business of
yours” the man said.
“Please daddy, please tell me, how much do you make an
hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“If I tell you, you must promise you won’t tell anybody
else”
“I promise,” said the little boy.
“Alright then,” said his father. “I make $150.00 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied. He looked a little sad, then
said “Daddy, may I borrow $20.00 please?”
His father was furious. “If the only reason you wanted to
know how much money I make is so you can borrow some you can go straight off to
bed!”
The little boy burst into tears and made his way to his
room. After an hour or so the father had calmed down and went to his son’s
room. “I’m sorry for being so hard on you earlier son. If you tell me what you
wanted the $20 for and it’s a worthwhile thing I’ll think about giving it to
you.”
The little boy ran across the room to his piggy bank and
counted out all it’s contents, exactly $130.00.
“$130.00, that’s a lot of money son. Surely that’s enough
for what you wanted to buy” said the father.
“Well with the $20 you’ll give me it will be” the little boy replied. “I’d like to buy an hour of your time.”
2. All You Are is an Interruption
In 2001 Bob Reccord was the President of the Southern
Baptist North American Mission Board.
During an address to the New Orleans Baptist Seminary he
told of how his commitment to ministry almost cost him his marriage. Bob was 29
years old at the time and he and his wife Cheryl had a four-year-old son and a
newborn. Bob was also a “bi-vocational” pastor, working as a businessman and as
National Director of Training for Evangelism Explosion. His business and
pastoral work had him away from home for 33 weeks of the year.
Returning home from a trip he one day came in the door, put
down his suitcase, and said excitedly to his wife, “Want to hear what God’s
done?”
Cheryl looked at him and said, “No,” then began to cry.
“You used to be an asset to this family” she said. “All you
are now is an interruption to this family.” Cheryl went on to say that if
things didn’t change, she and the children would leave him.
That episode shocked Bob Reccord to rethink his life and
make some changes. To the students at New Orleans Baptist Seminary, he made the
very important point that it is easy for those with strong commitments to
ministry to become distracted from what’s important – such as their marriages
and families – not by evil things but by good things.
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Source: Reported at BPNews.com, November 21, 2001
Reconnection, Sacrifice, Reflection, Priorities, Family,
Balance, Awakening, Reconciliation, Value