Today took a strange turn beginning with last night. My autistic son takes meds to help him both sleep and concentrate the following day at school. In a bizarre turn of events, he got two doses last night. This is not a good thing. He stayed home with me today. Thursdays tend to be tough around our house all the way around. In some regards, Thursday is my Saturday. Or perhaps it is closer to my Friday. I usually work to some extent on Saturday night. Even if my "sermon" is totally written and wrapped up I will still make time to review or edit or just fritz over it. By the time Thursday comes along it is a great day to catch my breath.

So what does a minister do with his week? That is not an easy question to answer. Every minister has their own method to coping with the madness. Some of the higher strung personalities get everything done perfectly by Friday. Sadly, that is not me. My conclusion after 20 + years of ministry is that there is no one way to do this job. Years ago I would ask men who served in much larger congregations about their approach yet none of those answers worked for me. The only person who came close to how I try to juggle my work is Ed Young Sr. He said the first part of his week was geared to the work of the church. He used the last part of his week for preparation for messages and the sort. That seems to be my routine at the moment.

Each minister has to find their own groove. In my setting here there can be all manner of interruptions or emergencies that arise. I am also the parent that is here to meet my children after school or go to the schools if needed. Let me clear about this one thing to any minister of any type in any setting. Your family and your children come before your work. You may not always be a pastor etc but you will always have a family relationship. I make NO apologies for juggling kids and work at times. I never will.

Monday is a day where my brain is usually a tad tired from the Saturday night and Sunday activity. It is a good day for projects that call for little study. This week I got tons done on two major projects coming up on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday are transition days for study or sermon preparation. I can pull material together for Wednesday or start looking at the next Sunday. On Thursday my main goal is to have enough done for Sunday that I can put an outline in the bulletin. Fridays are days of catching up on odds and ends of the week.

This job is what they call 24/7. So is life. Some may not always "get" how a minister allots his time. There will always be those with suggestions or even criticism on how to do the job. We cannot escape that difficult part of human nature. We as ministers can only aim to keep growing in skills and in spirit. Maybe we can even blog faithfully when we find that niche!

Bro. Trey