Balance in our lives and an emphasis on enjoying our children

As many of you know, I have been compiling reunion yearbooks for our BYU Law School graduates. Last year, I completed 600 profiles from the 35th, 30th, 25th and 20th classes (1978, 1983, 1988 and 1993). This year, I have done the same for the same four class reunions (1979, 1984, 1989 and 1994). I am often very impressed with their careers, family and service noted in their profiles. I also make a list of their notable achievements in the community and in the LDS Church. Their personal statements are often inspiring like this one I am including in today's blog post. Here is a wonderful personal statement that I hope each of us is aspiring to accomplish in our lives. It is from an attorney in Florida from the BYU Law School class of 1989:

"With great relief after completing what I believed to be the most stressful years of my life in my efforts trying to juggle my law school studies with my responsibilities to my wife and two young daughters, I learned that I must have balance in all things. During the past 25 years as an attorney I have applied what I learned and made sure that I put family first. As a husband and father I have never missed any of my children's school activities, family outings, dinners with family, helping with household chores, assisting with children’s homework, dating my wife every Friday night, spending Saturdays with my wife and children, and serving in the Church. I have spent most of my days during the past 25 years creating memories with my family. My career has been only the means to this end. I have interviewed many young job applicants where I have asked them the hypothetical whether they would remain late at work to finish a project rather than attend their child’s school activity. Of those I hired I always told them that they would never be fired if they attended their child’s school activities, but they would be fired if they didn’t. To me, nothing has been more important than family. As a grandfather what I have learned most is that in the past I spent too much time trying to raise perfect children. I should have spent much more time just enjoying them. This is what I now do with my grandchildren – just enjoy them."