Sometimes we need a break. This year, I took our family to Disney Land in Anaheim California. The trip proved to be more than the experience I anticipated. I knew the girls would have fun, and I knew my wife and I would find time to have great conversation, but I had no idea how many great conversations and observations I would have and make concerning my kids.

Follow up:

The truth of the matter is that many of us don’t realize the amount of distractions we have in our lives until we are away from them. Honestly, many of our children are dying to have certain conversations with us, but we are so into our routines and managing our responsibilities, that we miss opportunity after opportunity to reduce each conversation to its lowest common denominator. See, most of you are like me. I spend lots of time with my family, have lots of conversations, go on plenty of outing, but I realized on this trip that I also have plenty of obligations.

On the trip, there were moments when I had to fight the urge to answer an email, return a phone call, check a status, review a balance, schedule an appointment, approve the report, return a text or BBM (fellow BlackBerry users), update the status, and or upload the picture (and that’s just to name a few). On the trip, I realized that our mobile world mobilizes our responsibilities and our distractions.

Having said all of that, all responsibilities aren’t all negative or distractions. Many of them are just plumb necessary. I wondered to myself, in maximizing my time and mobilizing my office and social life (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc) am I minimizing my time while attempting to maximize it with my family.

I thought while on the Pacific Ocean whale watching (of all things), I can do without a vacation because I love what I do as a minister and with franchise ownership, but my family can’t. Sometimes we need a break not because we are weary and worn, but because our family needs us to take a break so that we can sit with them, talk and have a break through.