day no. 16,137: your kids get dibs: opportunity costs (and benefits)

"The question for you is not so much how you could match the productivity of those who are in a different stage of life, but rather whether you could start on the same course. When my kids were little, I was not doing anything close to what I am doing now. What I was doing was investing in them, paying my dues, and establishing my qualifications for doing what I am doing now. I didn’t publish my first book until I was almost forty. Don’t compare yourself to people who have rounded into the straight." -- Douglas Wilson, Blog and Mablog

If you do not take the time to raise your children rightly, it won't matter what brand you've built in the meantime by abandoning them since it will have simultaneously destroyed your credibility as a Christian authority. You prepare yourself for future opportunities by taking full advantage of the current responsibilities God has given you; and if you have young children, your time and energy have already been allocated.

Your kids get dibs.

Whatever creative energies or entrepreneurial excitements you think you may have, you must first exercise them in establishing a covenantal culture in your home. Fail there and it won't matter what might have been, because you will have disqualified yourself. You can't borrow from the future. If you renege on your responsibilities with respect to those you're called to rear, you won't be given any authority once that opportunity has been squandered. So, all that to say, work hard now and raise your kids and perhaps one day if God provides opportunity, you will be qualified to pursue it. But you can't pursue those opportunities in bypassing your current responsibilities.

"Authority flows to those who take responsibility." -- Douglas Wilson