The Beginning

This blog is a way for me to tell the story of my day to day journey as a pastor's wife. Writing has never been my strong suit, I have a tendency to write just like I speak, in short bursts and with not much fore thought! As you can imagine, this causes some confusion and misunderstandings. But, I must obey and do this, for it is what I believe God wants me to do. I don't believe that the story of my journey as a pastor's wife is all that special, or even different from others', I just know that it is time to obey and write it down.
This posting will cover the beginning of my life as a Handmaid of the LORD.
Our society is far removed from the practice of slavery and of servant hood. Maybe some of us can afford to have a domestic servant in our home, maybe some of us are blessed with financial provisions enough to have a housekeeper or even a cook, or maid. But for most of us, this is not the case. When we hear the word, slave or servant, it may bring to mind the tales we have heard of the slaves in our own country, or it may bring to mind the things we know of the practice of slavery in Bible times. For me the word slave brings to mind a portion of scripture that has become one of my favorites, and it has become one of those verses that I call, "A Life Verse." For me a "Life Verse" just means that it is a portion of scripture that floods through my mind and heart on a regular basis. It is a verse that I try to live by, and in this blog I would like to share with you how I have made it "mine."
Psalm 123:2 "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us."
I began my journey as a pastor's wife a bit different than most, God told me that my man was going to be a pastor 10 years before he became one, and before He even told Mitch! I can still see myself standing in front of my bathroom mirror getting ready for church. I was a brand new Christian, only 10 months at this point, with a husband who had just accepted the Lord a few weeks before, and here I was complaining to God that this whole Christian Family thing was not what I had signed up for! I had my idea, a dream I guess, of what it should be like to be married to a Christian man and to live a Christian family life. I felt that a Christian family should get up on Sunday mornings and share a meal together with scripture reading, and then as a family, we would all get in the car and drive to church together, and then come home for "Family Day." And a family meant having the man there! It wasn't long after we were saved, that I began to realize that some of my ideas and some of my dreams for my husband and family were not the same as the Lord's. Don't get me wrong, a lot of them were......God wanted us to love and serve Him with our whole hearts, and I totally agreed with that! God wanted our marriage to reflect Him to the world around us, and He wanted us to enjoy marriage and family life. God wanted us to raise children that would love and serve Him for all of their days. All of these things and more I was in total agreement with. I just wasn't expecting God to do what He did! And now, 27 years later, here we are living the life that the Lord had planned for us from the foundation of the world.
Ok, back to my story. As I stood before my mirror, putting on my make-up, I was complaining to God that once again I was alone (Mitch's job at this time in our life took him away from home a lot), and on a Sunday no less, because Mitch was down at the church helping to make sure all went well for the morning service. As I look back I smile at myself that I was feeling this way, because Mitch had only been saved for about two weeks at this point! He had received the Lord on a Friday night and was down at the church the following Sunday morning, serving the Lord! This shows what manner of man I had married.......a servant to His Lord.
As I stood there whining to God, I heard Him ask me, "How are you going to handle life when Mitch becomes a pastor?" Needless to say, I was stunned! I am sure that you have had those times where you know that God is doing something miraculous and that you, at that moment in time, have a choice to make, a "forever-my-life-will-be-changed" choice to make. I literally stopped what I was doing and bowed my head and prayed. I asked the Lord to help me. I asked that He would forgive my whining and to change my heart and give me the strength to say, "Yes." I asked the Lord to make me into the wife that Mitch was going to need in the future. So, in a "nutshell" this is the story of the start of my journey as a pastor's wife.
I wish that I could say that all went well from that point on, it didn't, but it was and still is GOOD! Mitch and I had been married for 3 years at this point, and our marriage had not started off in a godly way. You see, we were not Christians when we married. At the time that I was saved, we had a very rocky and ungodly marriage, and so the Lord had a lot of work to do with us before we were ready to serve Him as a pastor and his wife. The changes that the Lord brought about in our lives are the things that I hope to share with you in this blog. My goal is to bring glory to the One who saved me, and to serve Him with an obedient heart.
And there you have it, the beginning of my journey. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, please visit with me again, for my desire is that I could encourage you in your journey as a Handmaid of the LORD.