How Stress Undermines Our Relationships

Men: Prioritize Your Family

In general, men are more task oriented, as opposed to people oriented. When men are in a situation of burnout, stress, or overwork, the relational side of things begins to suffer and become a much lower priority, partly because they just don't have the energy for it.

So, maybe they'll stay at work longer and longer, knowing that if they go home they've got to relate to their wife and kids—so it seems easier to just keep working. Distance, coldness, and disinterest sets in between men and their wives and children. And whenever that happens, there's a great danger because men have certain physical needs, and will therefore seek to satisfy them in ways that do not require as much emotional investment and relational time.

Reset

David Murray

Although burnout is growing increasingly common among men in ministry, it doesn’t have to be inevitable. Pastor and counselor David Murray offers men gospel-centered hope for avoiding and recovering from burnout, setting a more sustainable pace.

That's why burnout is so dangerous—it creates a vacuum in a man's life that he will seek to fill with the cheapest route possible, leaving him vulnerable to immorality.

To learn more about burnout and its harmful effects on life and ministry, check out the infographic.

David Murray (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) has pastored four churches in Scotland and the USA. He is also a counselor, a regular speaker at conferences, and the author of several books, including Reset and Exploring the Bible. David has taught Old Testament, counseling, and pastoral theology at various seminaries.