Several years ago in honor of my wife’s first Mother’s Day I built her a rose garden back by the shed. A few years after that I planted a honeysuckle between the roses and the shed with the goal of covering the shed with some nice foliage. After three years orange flowers began to appear on it and I was beginning to be satisfied. The plant was slowly covering the shed as desired.
Things however had changed for me in 2016 though. I was in an accident which has made my gardening difficult. My neighbor has been mowing my lawn but that honeysuckle has gone unchecked. It enjoys the sunlight just as much as the roses but with the advantage of being taller. The plant has a pretty good grip on the shed so it’s branches have begun to shoot outward. That means there is this cover that is overshadowing the rose bushes. They were there first and literally stand for my family.
Finally I felt well enough with cooler conditions outside to go prune that honeysuckle. Because it had not been done all season long it doesn’t look very nice now but it had to be done for the sake of the roses. It was that or risk letting them die.
In Mark 6:31 we find this, And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Ministery is good but it should not be consuming everything about us. We must take care of our families and our own health. My pastor has one day a week set aside for family day, it is only for him and his family. He still prays and reads his Bible but church business has the day off. The above verse happened because Jesus made the disciples get alone and if He did it for them then it goes for us to. Otherwise our ministry could become a nuisance to our family like the honeysuckle to those roses. Conversely the ministry must be allowed to grow as well as the family.
Digging in the Word 