Paul, in the last episode, 98, of Ask Paul Tripp, you helped pastors and churches navigate

the unique challenges that come with being a pastor's kid and how we can protect these young

souls from disillusionment, even deconstruction. Now, this question is very similar. How does the

pastor prevent from overcommitting to ministry and abandoning his family?

What are the warning signs? And then what did you do with your family and kids back in your pastoral days?

I have come in my now 50 years of ministry.

Just in case you wonder, I started in ministry when I was seven, to understand that one of the most important things you have to admit is your limits.

And one of the primary limits I find myself talking about are the limits of time.

If you're a pastor, you will never get 40 hours in a day. You'll never get 10 days in a week.

You'll never get 50 days in a month. you'll never get 450 days in a year.

God has ordained for you to live in that 24-7 environment limits that he's created.

Now, here's what this means.

If you keep saying yes,

you don't get extra time.

What happens is those ministry commitments that you've agreed to

begin to eat into other essential areas in your life.

And one of the areas that it eats into immediately is family, marriage, parenting.

And so you have to realize that it's not always godly to say yes.

Sometimes the most godly answer is to say, no, I can't.

There's a great Old Testament example of this.

Moses is alone as the judge in Israel, about a million people.

And Jethra's father-in-law comes to him and says,

...