Norris Family News

Career Decision Tree

Starting December 1, 2004 I will be working at home doing shareware, web development, and various software contracting jobs. I am doing this in an attempt to leave the fast-track, corporate lifestyle in exchange for a more flexible schedule and the ability to spend my days at home with my home-schooling family. The following graph sets out my presuppositions of the nature of truth and reality and frames all of my family's decisions.

(Click to view full-sized)

Over the past five years, these simple facts have been growing larger and larger in my mind. One clear conclusion of all this is that our "American Dream" lifestyle causes us to spend the bulk of our lives working away from our homes, leaving only small amounts of "quality" time remaining each day. We end up spending 50-60% of our waking hours with our coworkers and maybe 10-20% with our children. While this lifestyle can be very productive and may be appropriate for a younger, single person getting established, God has given me my children, each a unique personality who will one day stand before God's throne, to raise, to teach, to pray for, and to enjoy. Relationships take time.

Although my family has material needs like anyone, our true needs can be met with less. I am still going to work as a contract and shareware programmer, but in the context of my own home and according to our family's schedule. The small amounts of “quality“ time in the evenings will be replaced with quantity time as we live and work together.

I will have the joy of participating in teaching our children. We will be able to take time off more flexibly for field trips, family hikes, and short term missions. My wife will have the blessing of both parents being around for reinforcement. As our children grow and learn, we can work together which will teach them a work ethic and skills about computers, business, accounting, sales, etc. Over time we want to study biblical Greek and study the bible, theology, and philosophy. We want to reach out to those in need as a family, teaching our children the power of the Gospel and the culture of service. We want to show hospitality as a family, getting to know people over meals, and as guests in our home for the sake of the Kingdom of God. We want to explore various hobbies and activities together as a family. We want our children to find our home to be the most enjoyable place to be, bringing their friends over to share in God's goodness and delight. These things will give our children invaluable life skills and a sense of purpose and belonging as teens, allowing them to grow up into the destiny divinely appointed to each one.

What I have outlined may not be achievable in one lifetime, but it is a goal to strive for. It is a goal that requires a drastic shift in priorities. God has blessed us richly. God has blessed us with our American citizenship and with professional skills that could afford us greater luxuries. But more than all this, God has blessed us with Himself, with eternal life, and with delightful children. Further, we are (or can be) the greatest influence for Heaven our children will ever have. And our family, when submitted to His goals, can be truly useful for the Kingdom of God. Why not set our family's goals higher than we can reach, and our material goals lower down onto our basic needs? Why not use the incredible opportunities for flexibility that our career skills and our citizenship provide to maximize our time together as a family and therefore maximize our family's impact in the world?

--Thaine