Review: Andy Stanley - When Work and Family Collide

Can we do everything we should in life?

Can we work a full week, spend time with our families, work with a charity, get involved in church, visit our extended family, mow the grass, change the oil, take the dog (or cat) for a walk, get eight hours of sleep, read our bibles, pray, etc? Andy Stanley’s book says no. I agree. To accomplish all these things and more (we could add a million things), we would have to live on Red bull and Starbucks.

We can not do it all. In, “When work and family Collide”, Andy Stanley says we have to spend time with our families we need to CHEAT. What? A Christian cheat? He’s not talking about being unfaithful to our wife or husband. He says to spend time with our families; someone is not going to be happy. When we spend time with our spouse and children, we are not spending time elsewhere - i.e. work, hobbies, etc. We have to cheat someone or something.

If we spend 70 hours at work, we will never see our families. Even the most understanding spouse will break down sooner or later.

Which is more important, a large nest egg or a great relationship with our spouse and children? We can work 20 years of overtime and be sitting great financially, but if we lose our family, what is it worth?

When I saw this book, I thought there was nothing in it that could relate to me. I am home every night. I spend time with my son and wife. What benefit could I have in reading a book like this?

Much!!!

This book taught me not to feel guilty when I can’t please everyone. Normally, if I can not do everything people need, I feel as if I had betrayed them, myself, and the Lord. Am I not a Christian? Am I not called to help others? Yes, but not at the expense of my family. The bible says how can you run the Church if you can’t run your own household (my paraphrase).

Stanley has packed this book full of illustrations.

I really enjoyed this book. If there is a negative, it would be that it was short and contained very little exegesis. Short or not, Stanley gets his point across. As far as the exegesis, I don’t think he was trying to lay down a Biblical doctrine as much as a Biblical principle.

Now - Stop reading this and go love on your spouse and kids!!

* This book was freely provided by WaterBrook Multnomah for the purpose of an honest review.