Today I am working from home, I love working from home. I love that on my breaks I can jump on the trampoline with my kids. I love that I can do my work at the same table that Emma is doing her school at. I love that my kids get to see me working and not have it be something that dad has to go off every day to do. I love that when an emergency happens, like one kid punches the other in the face, or Amy need my help that I am there.
When working at home it is a true test of what matters most in life, work or family. There are many instances while working at home that my kids here this “just a minute, right after I finish this, I’m listening (while I look at the computer), not now, and so on and so on. I do love that I get to be home while working, but it can turn me into a jerk as I feel that I have more rights or need to be left alone than my kids have need for me to pay attention to them.
I am not sure where this came from, but as I was working from home today and seeing all this happen I was thinking about it and thought it would be a good post. Do any of you reading this work from home? Would you rather work from home or from an office? I do love both, it is just that each brings different results and levels of production. I am trying to find a good balance of both.
Don Miller recently blogged about this…quoting somebody I can’t remember…but it has stuck with me. Something along the lines of “If you have a career and a family one will inevitably suffer for the success of the other”. The choice of which is ours. If my “productivity” suffers for the opportunity to work from home a day or so a week and my family benefits, well…awesome.
The false life our culture has created has proven to be a failure. Dad at work, Mom at work, kids at school and other needful things that take us away from one another are killing us. It’s time for those of us in “ministry” jobs to stop feeling the pressure to match the workaholism of the prevelent culture. A strong family is a prophetic voice to our divided, scattered culture.
So, keep jumping my friend!
i love you Chris, thanks for the encouragement. It’s great to be confirmed in it.
As I’m reading this, I’m working from home. I’m fortunate enough to get to work from home every Wednesday. My solution to the work/distraction/focus conundrum is that I “work” for about a 10 hour stretch from about 7am-5pm but probably only do about 6-7 hours of work. I typically work about an extra 15-30min when I go into the office each day so for my one “work at home” day each week, I really only need to put in about 6-7 hours of work. That way, I feel I have the liberty of being distracted when it’s convenient, go on short walks, or just sit outside and tell Hilda stories about how Phil gets to jump on trampolines in multiple countries; this way, I don’t put the pressure of needing to produce at the same rate of production when I’m isolated @ the office and able to focus better.
Interesting thoughts Chris. I’d be curious to read this Don Miller’s blog on this subject. Can you provide a link?