Invest The TimeTreasure the Relationships12/5/04 Dear Men of KONOS, Back during the summer I started a new construction business catering to the super-rich. The business has done quite well for a start-up (thanks to my son who works for a builder who builds in the million-dollar plus market). The homeowners are a little taken aback when I converse with them on their own level. They have all been very sweet people and I have become friends with several families. I mention this because I have been able to observe the dynamics of families with means from the inside out (or from the backyard to be more accurate). I don’t know all of the ends and outs of how family time is spent but I have observed several interesting differences in the lifestyles of the privileged compared to the run-of-the-mill homeschooling family that I know. Maids and housekeepers spend more time with toddlers and pre-schoolers than most mothers. Housekeepers watch pre-schoolers “tricks” and push babies in strollers. (Moms are busy jogging or meeting with the interior decorator). Moms do tons of errands and activities while the kids are at their exclusive, private prep schools. Moms go through their days with one time fixed in their minds, pick-up time after school. Moms have horrors of forgetting or not being there to pick up from school on time. The emphasis on “things” like perfect granite in the kitchen or the perfect color of stain on the mantel in the upstairs family room is waaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top. Most of the fathers are at work for long hours. (The guy has to keep the bucks coming in to pay for the 60,000 gallon pool and tennis court out back.) A few observations: · I don’t want to condemn these people because they are living a different life-style. They have some things you and I would love to have to (like money left over at the end of the month and fast, nice luxury cars that don’t need fixing every month!) · I do see a frazzled, disjointed lifestyle with little time for kids to just be kids. A few questions · How often are they really going to use a state-of-the-art 20-seat media room that costs $100,000? How important are “things” in your life? · Men, do you spend more time at work or pursuing your hobbies and/or activities than you should? Are your kids left out of your life too much? Are you involved in their lives; or are you only involved in the things you’re interested in like sports? Men, do you love your wives enough to help her with the children and the household chores? Ladies, do you love your hubbies enough to know about their work and meet them at the door every night with dinner in the oven (microwaves DO count) and lipstick and perfume applied? · Is your home your castle, your refuge, your albatross, or your god? · Are you building a family that will stand for the Lord in season and out? My friend, Jack Goodchild, used to say that he was training his children to love the Lord – Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else! The challenge for all of us, no matter how much money we make each year, is to walk the tightrope, to perform this balancing act as we provide for our families and have a nice home on the one hand, and yet, try not to allow the place where we live to become our god. Men, we are supposed to provide for our families. Ladies, you are supposed to have a warm, inviting home, wrapped in a spirit of loveliness. We just have to be careful not to allow our hearts to follow the wrong treasure! The greatest gift the Lord has blessed us with is relationships with our spouses and our children. We must work hard to build them and to grow them. It takes effort, it takes planning and purpose, and sadly it takes the one commodity we have so little of, T I M E! Trust me, the investment is worth it! How will you spend your time this week and this coming weekend? Write and let me know what’s going on in your life. If you make some mid-course corrections let us know so we can pray for you and so we can be inspired to follow your lead! Blessings, Wade Hulcy 972/924-2712
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