It's About Honor!

It is important to keep a good name or reputation. A bad reputation is difficult to overcome. Solomon mentioned in Proverbs that a man who betrayed the confidence of a neighbor would never lose his bad reputation. (Proverbs 25:9-10) Good reputations are without value. They go before us, but sometimes not as quickly as a bad reputation. Good reputations can keep us in a job. Bad reputations can keep us looking for a job.

The more important reputation, though, is the one we have at home. Do we have reputations at home of being men who love and cherish our wives and children? Or is our reputation that of men whose entire life is wrapped up in that steering wheel, that white stripe, and the hidden lures that lie along the roadside?

(read more...)

My family hates my job.

What can I do?

Earning a living on the road is not easy for anyone involved. It is hard, tiring work even though it does have its points of enjoyment. Some wives are completely happy with a marriage that includes a husband who is gone most of the time. Some couples work together on the road. But it can also be strainful on a relationship. Some wives need more time with their husbands. Some children need more time with their fathers. The choice whether to stay or change occupations can be a tough one to make. But in some families there comes a time when the man of the house has to make a decision to go home and do all that he can to fill all the shoes that he needs to fill.

There is a myth that runs rampant among people who earn their livings on the road. That is, they buy into the notion that they can't earn a living doing anything else. That is rarely true if the situation were looked at carefully. There are other occupations that can provide similar incomes. With the exception of the military where a person has made a comitment for a certain number of years of service, it is often possible to earn a similar living doing the same type of work locally. The biggest hurdle that many husbands and fathers face when making the decision whether to stay on the road or come home, is that they sincerely love their jobs. And there is nothing wrong with that! Trucking, bus driving, sales, or otherwise earning a living on the road are all honorable and vitally important vocations. But there may come a time that a choice has to be made. Do I continue to do what I love, even to the detriment of my family? Or do I stand up and make the ultimate occupational sacrifice and make a total change in my life?

The ultimate answer to the question is one that each person has to make individually. Search your heart. Ask others what they have done in similar situations. Pray about it. The answer will come and when you heed that answer, you will find doors beginning to open that you may have never considered. That answer may include you coming off the road, or it may include previously unthought of ways to keep the family together while staying in the same occupation.

Print this page.