Pastor & Parent

I follow a Twitter feed called @bobgoff. This is a man who I do not know personally but I love hearing him talk or read what he writes because of the faith he lives with. 
 Last week he sent this tweet;
"When your career goal is simply to be the pastor of your family, everything else becomes just a day job"


This rung out with joy for me because this concept is what I'm trying to do, I'm desperately trying to lead my family spiritually & give them my utmost time, attention & care.  I know the phrase "pastoring" a family can lead to many different connotations & ideas for various people, but for me there are some real specific aspects I try to do.


1- Pray with my wife.  I love our marriage & never want it to break.  I want to pray with my wife about our marriage, our parenting, our excitements, fears, joys & everything else.  I want this to be a constant habit so we both depend on Jesus.
2- Pray with my kids.  I want my sons to see their dad who deeply depends on God each day.  I want to model for them what a prayerful lifestyle is, but also I want to hear them pray.  You can learn a lot about your kids if you listen to them pray.
3- Be obedient to Jesus.  Whether it be through Scripture, meditation, the nudging of the Holy Spirit or the nudging of your spouse whom the Holy Spirit is using....I want to be obedient when Jesus asks our family to act in certain ways.
4- Serve.  I want to serve my wife daily.  I want to serve my kids daily.  I want to show the people I love the most that I love them enough to serve them selflessly.
5- Forgiveness.  I'm not perfect & I suck at a lot of things, but I want to seek forgiveness when I need to.  I also want to extend forgiveness as readily as I want to receive it.  I want our home to be a place where grace, mercy & forgiveness fill the air.


Bottom line is I want to be the husband & dad who puts more energy into his marriage than anything else.  Everything else can fall apart and I'll be ok with it.  If my family falls apart because I didn't care for it, then I've failed with the dearest gifts God has given me!