If you’re a baseball fan, then you know Mike Hargrove, manager of the Seattle Mariners resigned last week. Peter Gammons shared this on his ESPN weekly column: “According to sources, he told general manager Bill Bavasi, clubbies and players that he’s been in the business for 35 years, and that when he was in Cleveland recently he realized that he never saw his children grow up and now is missing his grandchildren growing up.” I read this and tears welled up as I thought about how heartbreaking this is.

I never want to look back and think that I traded my family for something else. Yet it’s so easy to do. For Pastors this is especially easy because everything has the “ministry” label on it. Our family is the greatest treasure any of us could be given. We need to prioritize like we believe that.

Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley helped me so much in this area. I want to look back and say, “The kids are grown up and I didn’t miss it. I enjoyed every minute of it.” The meetings we may miss, the counseling sessions that another staff member handles, the phone calls someone else takes care of, none of it matters if it means missing out on the family God has given us.