Balancing Marriage and Business
Updated: Jan 25, 2021
Before getting married, I used to stay at the office burning the midnight oil, cranking away at building my business.
Once I got married, I figured that she’d be cool with the same routine since, after all, I’m doing it so we could have a better future. I would say it was the sacrifice we had to pay now so we could live our dream lives later.
Needless to say, the first years of my marriage were especially tough because I hadn’t yet figured out how to balance my entrepreneurial zeal with meeting the needs of my bride.
The lie of sacrificing today for financial freedom tomorrow is just that: a lie.
Although God has called us Godpreneurs to be marketplace ministers, that’s only one element of life. God calls us to belong to Christ in every area of our lives. Our businesses are not necessarily the most important aspect of our calling.
First, we must remember that work is not limited to paid work. The work God leads us to may be unpaid work, such as being a husband, raising children or caring for a disabled family member or tutoring students after school.
Even if you are leading a great organization, the most important work God calls you to may be outside your job. Your entrepreneurship may meet your need for money—which in itself fulfills part of God’s command to work —but it may not fulfill all the other purposes God has for your work life. For example, caring for children, aged or incapacitated people is a kind of work. On the other hand, a so-called hobby could be the most important work God is leading you to. You might work at writing, painting, music, acting, astronomy, leading a youth group, volunteering at a historical society, maintaining a nature reserve or a thousand other kinds of work. Any given activity could be work for one person, and leisure for another.
Second, we must take care to not let business dominate the other elements of life.
I let my business be #1 in my life, even above God at one point. I probably still have times where I put my new venture or even my clients above my family and God. This selfishness almost led me to divorce several times, especially because I was so convinced that she should respect the fact that I want to work hard for our future. All along, God was using her to get me in balance.
The bible says
"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Ephesians 4:1 NIV
Even if God leads you to a particular business, you will need to set limits to that work to make room for the other elements of God’s call or guidance in your life. In my business, I help people find their calling in life. I give people hope and purpose. That’s a major job! But God still doesn’t want that calling to take over the other things I was called to do.
If God leads us to be married and to be a small business owner, for example, then we will have to balance the time and responsibilities of both callings. Work should not crowd out leisure, rest and relationships. There is no formula for balancing work and the other elements of life. But we Godpreneurs must take care not to let a sense of calling to a business blind us to God’s calling in the other areas of life.
As a Godpreneur
God has given me his eyes to see all of the ways in which I’m living out my calling.
God shows me how to invest my time, energy and talent in each of the places he’s calling me to.
God puts clients, vendors, employees, and even my wife around me to refocus, balance and correct me.