I received a nice email from Crystal in Louisiana and she asked: "I thought I would ask for your perspective on juggling being a Christian lawyer, wife, and mother. Does the lawyer part take too much time away from the rest or put too much stress on the rest?"

It's a great question and I thought I'd post my answer on the blog. Here it is.

Crystal:

Thank you for writing! The short answer to your question is that it completely depends on what you do with your law degree. The Lord has blessed me by giving me a legal job where I rarely have to work more than 40 hours per week, so being a lawyer for me isn't much different than being a full-time worker at McDonalds.

But be aware that legal jobs where you work such low hours are few and far between. And in exchange for working so few hours, the salary is much lower than I would make many other places. And most firms require a huge time commitment from their attorneys.

In reality, being an attorney is not much different from any other profession for women. When a professional woman has children, she either (a) preserves her career by continuing at the same pace she was working previously and spends limited time with her children; (b) finds a balance by working fewer hours and allowing her career to not advance in the same way it was before, but therefore getting more time with her children; or (c) she stops working, puts her children as her priority and puts her career on hold until some time in the future.

Some women only get to choose between option (a) and (b) due to financial situations that require them to work to support their families, which is my situation. As I said, God has blessed me by allowing me to help to support my family without me having to spend all my daughter's waking hours at work.

The difficulty for me has not been in juggling everything so much as it is that I mourn the fact that I can't be a stay-at-home mom and spend all my time with my daughter. If you don't ensure that you at least have a chance to choose option (c) later down the road, you may find yourself in the same position I am.

In the end, the bottom line for you is to seek God's will. Although it's been very hard for me to get over having to be a working mother, I never doubt for a minute that God called me to be an attorney. If you follow His will, the peace you receive from knowing you did follow Him will carry you through times when you feel frustrated or burned out.

I hope this rambling email has helped you at least a little. Good luck with your endeavor!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!