My first blog. After talking to another preachers wife the other night, I realized how blessed I am to be surrounded by such compassionate women at our church. The ladies in our church are wonderful. They take my feelings into consideration with everything that they do. These ladies pray for my husband, for myself, for our children, and for our church. So, first off, I thank the Lord for them. Not to say that the church has always been filled with ladies that love the pastor and his family, but we are thankful that it is now. So, as I spoke with this lady, I thought about all of the wise words that other preachers wives have passed along ot me, and began to think of a way to share some of them. This, I guess, was my resolution.... blogging.
I just want to be an encouragement to women, especially preachers wives. They are sometimes overlooked and forgotten, even tho they are a very crucial part of a successful ministry. Being a young wife, I also am praying that I get help from this blog. I know so many other women know so much more than I do about the duties, responsibilities, heartaches, and hardships that come with being a pastors wife. I am looking forward to meeting other ladies who "know what Im talking about."
So, first and foremost, the preachers wife ( or anyone for that matter) must have a personal relationship with Christ. Simply saying that we believe in Christ is not enough. Satan himself believes in Christ. We must have a relationship where we are closer to Him than we are our own husband. This is something that is not going to happen overnight. It takes TIME......
TIME in prayer. We do not have to be in our closet with eyes closed (although that is important to have too) to be in communion with God. We can talk to God while driving, working, shopping, or whatever that we may be doing. Praying should become such a "habit", that we call on Him just to say hello sometimes.... kinda like we do our mom. He is our Fatherand He wants us to tell Him whats going on with us. Yes, He already knows, but He just wants to hear us say it. He wants to know when we are hurting, when we're sad, when we're scared, when we're just plain tired (physically, mentally and spiritually). God wants us to "cry on His shoulder." However, we ought to be careful that that is not the only time that we talk to Him. We need to make sure that we let Him know when we have a good day. The days it just seems like everything just clicks. He wants us to be thankful for the prayers that He has answered and for the blessings that we didnt even ask for. He simply wants us to talk to Him. And while you can talk to Him anytime throughout the day, there should be a special time and place that we call on our Lord also. There should be a time when your family knows not to come bother you, because its your time to pray. Prayer is a gift.
TIME in God's word. He has left us the Bible as His love letter to us. God must really love us. To leave us a book full of promises that we can stand on. The answer to all that we need to know lies within the pages of our Bible. We have all read the email about what if we treated our Bible like we do our cell phone. What if????? I know that I could really be helped by being more "attached" to my Bible. Just as we ought ot have a time when we pray, there should also be a time set aside when we read His word. The best way to learn about how to act as a Christian, is to read His word. See how Jesus would handle a situation. Knowledge from our Bible will carry us farther than any diploma or degree ever can. Daily Bible reading will dramatically increase spiritual growth and help build that strong relationship between you and God.
TIME in general. After we have ourselves disciplined enough that we pray several times daily and we read our Bible daily, our relationship will blossom. We wont just be saved and waiting on Heaven (which is more than we deserve), but we will have a relationship. A father, a comforter, a hightower, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, a rock, a fortress, and so much more. Our relationship with Him will grow one day at a time. The more we pray, the more we will feel a need to pray. The more we read our Bible, the more we will want to read and learn. Our walk with God can become so "real" that we will be able to call Him all of the things that the Bible tells us that He is.
Am I as close to God as I could be? No. Am I doing all that I can to serve Him? No. Have I mastered all of the above? Absolutely not. But I have learned that we can have as much God as we want. And if there is anything that I do want and need, it is a closer relationship with Him.
This realtionship is a must, for us to be what we need to be for our husband. There is no possibility of a successful ministry if we do not have a close relationship with God. Christ is the only one who can give us the strength, courage, and ability to be able to support our husband as he tries to pastor a church or preach the gospel. There will be times that you are going to seemingly be your husbands only friend. There are going to be times that will be the only person tellingyour husband that it is worth the fight and that he needs to just keep going on for God. These times are inevitable when you are a preachers wife, but thru our relationship with Christ we will have the strength to encourage and support our husband.
I hope that this blog at some point is an encouragement to you. I would also like to have some feedback, because like I said, I am looking to get help and encouragement myself.
