No Specific Need of Your Presence

This is a really fun week for me. I got to tag-along with my husband to Williamsburg, Virginia. His days here have been filled with meetings, mine have not. We meet up at night, but during the day I have spent some time investigating the sites. Restored to its 18th century look and feel, Colonial Williamsburg is suitably called “the museum of the idea of America.” Many of the people on the street today are dressed in the appropriate 18th century garb and are actually chatting about 18th century issues. Fascinating; it’s a showcase.

As I meandered the streets yesterday I found the Bruton Parish Church. The building wasn’t that congregation’s original place of worship, this is their “new” facility, 75 feet long and 28 feet wide, built in 1715! This amazing church still houses the pews in which George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and others sat to worship. And the most thrilling aspect of this place: it is still a local church, serving the community! Fascinating; a 300-year-old church isn’t just a showcase.

My reasons for telling you these things likely aren’t what you’d assume them to be, but they are, none-the-less, my reasons:

1) I hope when you have opportunities to accompany your husband to places that hold “no specific need of your presence” that you will give serious consideration to going with him. You never know what you’ll learn along the way and choosing togetherness over tasks, when it is possible to do so, matters. Being together keeps your relationship up-to-date and conversations current. The fascinating early days of married life will always be there, for fun review, but it is the ongoing opportunities to share with each other that make “tagging along” worth it.

2) Be encouraged by the call God has given your husband to become a pastor and by God’s call on your life, as his wife. You are perfectly capable of this or He wouldn’t have called YOU. Discouragements lurk, but most of them can be dismissed when we realize God has us exactly where He wants us and He will use us fully there. Frustrations with ministry often lie in the perceived limitations of the local church: its too small, too old, or too “out-of-the-way” to make a significant difference, remember that we serve a God who is too big to let anything hinder His purposes. The congregation you serve alongside your husband is able to continue impacting the world not only beyond the constraints of its walls but also beyond the constraints of time. The way you serve God with your life has the potential not only to impact those in your family, local community, or across the globe…it can impact those in future generations. We need to remember that how we choose to live today can influence someone who will not be born this century!

Know that I’m praying for you, as are hundreds of other pastors’ wives praying for you, as well. They have committed to do so when they sit down in their worship services each weekend. Join us. Pray for pastors’ wives to love God well, cherish their husbands, train their children in the way of holy living, and serve their communities wholeheartedly.

P.S. There are three pastors’ wives conference coming up in January, alone, in various regions of the U.S. and numerous others in the month following. Visit http://www.gpwn.tv/index.html?PAGE=5 and see if any would be helpful to you. Each offers a great opportunity for connection and encouragement. One January gathering is a GPWN event and will be held at my home church on the outskirts of Orlando. We’re in this together!