You’ve just come home from an exhausting day at work.  No one is at home so you pull out the newspaper, get a cup of coffee and sit in your favorite chair. 

Just as you start reading an interesting article, your family excitedly bursts through the front door.  Your daughter sees you, jumps into your lap (crushing the newspaper) gives you a kiss and asks you to help her learn to ride her bicycle.  Your son comes into the room with his futbol and asks you to go to the park with him.  Your wife tells you the toilet is blocked up.  INTERRUPTIONS!!!!  I WANT SOME PEACE!!!

In a recent study of school directors, it was shown they were interrupted between 25 and 28 times every day.  A study at Hewlett Packard Labs in England showed that managers were interrupted just over 4 times every hour.  The average interruption was 2 minutes 11 seconds.  This says nothing of the regular interruptions you have in the average home – children, the phone, someone at the gate …  How do we handle interruptions?  Our actions will teach our children.  Are we angry?  Do we hide?  Do we ignore?

We can learn from the way Jesus handled interruptions:

-         He always responded with the attitude that people had the right to interrupt Him.

-         Christ treated even unimportant people as important.

-         Frequent interruptions did not detract Jesus from His primary purpose.

-         Sometimes Jesus interrupted what He was doing to meet an urgent need.

-         When Jesus had priorities, He isolated Himself from interruptions.

William Gladstone, prime minister of England, was facing one of the great crises of his political career.  He was finishing an important speech at 2:00 in the morning when the mother of a poor, dying cripple came to his door asking that he give a message of hope to her son.  Without hesitation, he left his speech writing and spent the night leading the child to the Lord.  In the early dawn, he gently closed the eyes of the dead child.  Later Gladstone told a friend, “I am the happiest man in the world today.”  A few hours later he made the greatest speech of his life, carrying his cause to success.

A lot of fun lies in the challenge of everyday interruptions.  Interruptions are about people and their need to interact with us.  Instead of avoiding the inevitable interruptions, let’s learn how to manage them.  Our children will be successful as they follow our examples.

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.