Q My husband spends up to 60 hours a week at work. Do you think he is a “workaholic”? If so, what can I do?

A People often voice pride in our country as a place where anyone can “get ahead” or work their way “to the top.” I know someone who began working for a company as a young teen pushing a broom — and now he is vice president of that company.

A man's work is very important to him on many levels, including psychologically and spiritually. Without work, man is simply not able to develop fully as a person. Even in the Garden of Eden, prior to the Fall, man worked. It is vitally important to do one's best at whatever one does and to faithfully and conscientiously perform all the duties of one's position.

Yet a get-ahead work ethic can sometimes lead us astray. In Leisure: The Basis of Culture, philosopher Joseph Pieper tells us that the capital sin of acedia, commonly called sloth, is a vice that goes against the Third Commandment — keeping holy the Lord's Day. This is surprising until we understand that leisure is critical to the well-being of the soul. It is not merely a nice activity that we do once a year when we take a trip to the Outer Banks or on a Friday night when we finally get to put our feet up and watch TV. In fact, leisure is opposed to both acedia and frenetic activity, and is a counter to the despair that can arise from both.

A wise friend once suggested that, when you are in need of a break, don't just do the knee-jerk thing you have always done in your free time (which might hark back to your single days, when Friday nights meant a six-pack of beer with your friends or a night on the town. Instead, do something that will make you feel truly refreshed and rejuvenated. In other words, enjoy some leisure time.

Instead of immediately turning on the TV when you come home from work, take 15 minutes to sit quietly outside and reflect on the beauty of God's creation. Or try a daily mediation and conversation with God for 15 minutes. Or, when it's cold outside, sit quietly by a window, reading Scripture or a spiritually uplifting book. Take a sunset stroll with your wife. Play catch with your kids.

So often, we men tend to keep up the never-ending cycle of work, work, work. Work is never done. Then we come home and plop ourselves down in front of the computer, answering e-mails, cruising the Internet, making sure we have all the latest news. Or we sit in our favorite chair in front of the TV. Beware of this kind of “leisure.” It doesn't leave us feeling refreshed; more often, it alienates us from our family and can even lead us into temptation.

True leisure is not escape. True leisure will leave us more in touch with ourselves and others, and closer to God. God himself rested on the seventh day. So should we.

Art Bennett is director of Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services in Vienna, Virginia, and Bethesda, Maryland.