Dear Pastor,
My husband works extensively in the community and, as a result, our household comes last. I handle the chores and look after the children on my own. When I raise the fact that he is rarely at home, he answers that he must carry out the Lord’s work.
I have reminded him that a husband’s role is more than earning. The children need him present in the evenings, and he ought to take them out on weekends. He is a fine father, yet the hours that belong to us go instead to helping neighbours, offering counsel, and fulfilling his duties as a justice of the peace by signing papers. The home still suffers.
My daughter sometimes says she wants a word with her father, but he returns so late that she is already asleep. I proposed that she write to him and request a scheduled meeting. She did so, and he blamed me for putting her up to it. I admitted that I had.
Our intimacy is satisfying, though it would improve if he spent more ordinary time with me. Teaching leaves me with many school pressures, and I long for him to ease the load at home. I notice his exhaustion at times, yet for sex he always has energy. Frankly, I wish that were not so, so my body could recover. How do I get him to stop trying to satisfy everyone outside our door?
Initial Withheld.
Dear Writer,
Your husband must learn balance. Being a justice of the peace does not require him to receive people around the clock. He should make clear that he is available at set times during the week, and that weekends are off-limits for that work. Saturdays and Sundays belong to his family.
The Lord Jesus did not labour without pause. He told His disciples, “come ye apart and rest a while.” Your husband needs regular time with those under his roof, or they risk drifting away.
Pastor
Syndicated from Jamaica Star · originally published .
