Attitude  Adjustments 

We have often heard ministers say from the pulpit "Behind every good man there is a good woman." What they are saying in essence is "behind every good successful man is a VIP - a very important person!

I think a minister's wife is a very important person in a special way because of her influence on her husband who has been called of God to care for the sheep of one of God's pastures. A minister's wife has many demands placed upon her by her position, as well as having the demands of realizing that her personal relationship with her husband affects him in his leadership as a minister, and also along with being a mother and homemaker. 

 Sometimes, in the hurry-skurry of everyday activities of our home life along with church activities with the parishioners, we sometimes get attitudes that are not becoming to us as ministers wives. One of the most damaging attitudes that sticks it's head up is resentment because we are expected to do SO MUCH!  You want to scream sometimes, "Hey, I am only human, I can just do so much!" At times like this, we need only whisper a prayer to our heavenly Father above, and remember that HE is the ONE who is in charge of our lives.  HE is the one that has placed us where we are in His Vineyard to work for HIM. And because He is the One responsible for us being where we are, HE will qualify and make us adequate for the job at hand.

We need to be prayed up, filled up with the Holy Spirit and be prepared for these times in our lives when we get over-

whelmed with everything that is demanded of us.  Let's keep in mind, as we prepare to be an overcomer of our wrongful attitudes, the following::

      1.  All work with no play just leads us to exhaustion.

      2.  All pleasure with no work leads to self-indulgence.

      3.  If we are heavenly minded with no earthly  

           goodness,  it  just leads us to being salt that has 

           lost its taste and is no good.  

   Problems crop up when only one area of our life is  satisfied to the exclusion of the others. It will produce  

imbalance in our lives with the neglected areas calling  

out  for our attention. 

It is during this time that we need to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit - - self-control because an undisciplined life is out of focus, lopsided and is not satisfying. God loves for His children to have wholeness in every area of their lives. Only then can our lives be satisfying to us and God, which will produce an enthusiasm in us for our ministry work and home life. Our lives will be balanced. 

Another wrongful attitude we ministers wives may face 

at times is jealousy over the many hours that church demands take our husbands away from us. The hours that are spent in loneliness, more so, I believe, for the young minister's wife who is so busy with the cares of home and raising the young children that she cannot go with her husband and help him in various areas of the ministry work. But if the young wife will just be patient, loving and caring - the children will not be little tykes long, and she will find the years behind her all too soon and she will have her freedom then to go and minister with her husband in those areas. 

It would be untrue for me to say that my life as the wife of a minister has just been a bed of roses, because it certainly has not. It has had it's days of problems and concerns, but don't everyone have problems now and then? I have found out that it is how I handle those problems when they come that makes the difference in my life. Paul gives us a valuable lesson in Philippians 4:11 and 12. He said that he knew how to be abased (humble, degrading)  and he knew how it felt to abound (to be plentiful, to be fully supplied) He said further that he knew what it was to be hungry and he knew how it felt to be full and he said that he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances he found himself in.  

If we learn that lesson, ministers wives, then we will have learned the secret to life itself. Because God, our heavenly Father is still in charge of things, there is nothing that goes on in my life that HE does not know about and has not approved for my life and that gives me such a contentment and satisfaction because I know my heavenly Father loves me with a greater love than I love my children.  Romans 8:28 is one of my very favorite verses in the Bible because it says that "everything (and that means good or bad) that happens in my life that something "good" will come out of it!

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Isn't that just so reassuring and beautiful to the child of God?    

I thank God in looking back over my life that He provided me the opportunity to say "I do" when I married my young minister 50 years ago now.  The call of the ministry my husband has on his life has provided me the opportunity to live in many different cities and towns across the nation. The ministry has provided me with the opportunity of meeting many beautiful children of God and making rewarding and lifelong friends in those different places. 

Prayer:

    Oh our heavenly Father, You alone are worthy of our praise. Praise, honor, power and glory belong to YOU!  You have created all things, and all things was created for Your pleasure.  Thank you for my life and giving me the privilege of serving You and my husband in his ministry work that You called him to do. I ask Your forgiveness for any wrongful attitudes I have shown and had about doing the work of the ministry. 

   You ask me now as an older woman to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and homes and that is my endeavor in these few pages on this website. 

   I ask Your blessings upon the young ministers wives and others that read these pages - I ask that You touch their hearts and place Your LOVE within them, and to strengthen them to help them carry on and help their minister husbands wherever you have placed them in Your great vineyard. Help us all to learn to obey Your Word which is what brings happiness, satisfaction and peace to our lives.   

        Look for other good pages to be added soon!