The best gift you can bring to your new spiritual family is you! This is not merely your personality, or your unique likes or dislikes, abilities or gifting, it is more about your distinctive character qualities that magnify God. Qualities like integrity and sincerity, two traits that will prompt favor with people in your congregation. Did you know that the word “be” is a verb? God asks us to be! He wants us to be women of integrity. Prov. 2:7  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity. Also, Psalm 51:6a …You desire integrity in the inner man… We are to BE honest and reliable. 2 Corinthians 2:17 says this so clearly: For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. We are to be sincere...

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.  I Tim 1:12, NKJV

Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. I Peter 2:17a The Message Bible

Viewing life and ministry from behind the pulpit is different from sitting in a pew in front of the pulpit! Yes, how grateful we are that God chose us and called us. I am glad “He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry.” This passage says God actually determined you to be the leader. Think more about this—God considers you a faithful leader, a trustworthy person of influence in ministry. Now, that is one opinion that counts! I challenge you to pray and ask God to help you to never forget or disregard the awesome privilege of being called to participate in His ministry. The longer one serves in ministry the more...

Romans 12:2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. The Message Bible

Change from the inside out is change that lasts and that is just the kind of change God brings us through the Holy Spirit.  A most practical matter of transformation requires clarity to discern our wants from our needs. Financial needs may require family meals at home, rather than Outback. You may discover new fun occasions  to enjoy friends with home cooked meals, rather than dining out. Most of us really want that newest pair of shoes or an up-to-date outfit, yet often that...

My children were not born into a pastor’s home. Sadly, they knew life with us before Jesus reigned, although I am happy to say that was not too many years. Life where Daddy is in ministry, and in our case, when Daddy is the pastor, was a new learning curve for us all. I was unaccustomed to people paying so much attention to my children, and so were they. In the earliest days of ministry, I had a secret hope: that my children would become adults and still like the church. I understood so little of what that really meant. Today, I would rephrase my hope for my children – that I would never discourage their relationship with God, and not be part of anything that detracts them from Him. I would not want to be that millstone around their necks, as in Luke 17:2: “Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim...

II Peter 1:3, 10-12. “seeing that His divine power has granted everything pertaining to life and godliness…therefore, be diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you…therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things…” Have you ever made a list of things that encouraged you? Invest in a review of God’s goodness and encouragements through your life in ministry. If you are just beginning this journey, take note of the special insights or people, books or poems that God brings across your path. God reminds me of people that encouraged me. One woman is forever nameless yet unforgettable. I recall meeting her and being captured by her Godly countenance. Being with her made me think: wow, I want to be like that!  She seemed to radiate God’s presence and reflect his attitudes. She was winsome and compelling, and meeting her changed me. The hour I spent with this woman affected my life...

Books I Read Say....

When I was a young minister’s wife, there were few printed materials to offer advice. Books or articles I read seemed to point to some perfection that was so out of reach for me; it seemed unnatural. My life was had changed drastically: I was in the trenches now. My days of walking on the mountaintops, when nothing touched my joy of this new calling on our lives seemed to slip away. Life changed, and I wondered, what is wrong with me?? I found myself working a fulltime job, and although my work was in a ministry environment, it was so different from anywhere I had been before. I no longer had hours per day to devote to spiritually uplifting things. That’s when I read a new book, about the abundant spiritual life. Now this famous author knew about spiritual things, and I recalled knowing that abundance in my life, but that...

No matter how wonderful a person, place, or thing is, there seems to be something connected to it that is just not fun. Every fulfilling thing has another side, a requirement: it takes effort—I call it grunt work!  It’s in the details, and requires you to think-through, organize, plan, prepare—in other words, work. It requires we expend effort. Ministry is a joy, it fulfills as we walk the mountain peak of spiritual exhilaration.  However, “Monday comes” and the work side must be attended to. I believe one four-letter word constitutes the work of ministry: t.i.m.e.  The very nature of ministry means setting self-interests aside and engaging with God for the good of others. Ephesians 4:12 reflects the work of ministry:

• Time with God; receiving something valuable to give others.

Ephesians 4:12 clarifies our assignment: we are to equip others for the work of ministry, work being the product and accomplishments of ministry. For others to step...

Like any other new thing we encounter, we anticipate what we know and plan how to handle the known challenges.  The early season of ministry has so many new things for us. As my husband and I entered our formal full time service, it corresponded to his first semester in school.  Were we both in for new and unexpected things. My husband felt the weight of our family and circumstances because we relocated for him to attend school. He had no concept of he would face the first semester or even the second. No one told us that college demanded equal study time to time spent in class—or how to balance school demands with family needs. It was hard for me to understand all his new demands because I had my own unforeseen tests. I wish I had understood more clearly. Reflect with me from today’s...

My husband is THE minister, but hey—what about me? Where do I fit in, and do I even count at all? Seems there are so many expectations, including own expectations, so how do I know what to do, or be? My husband often referred to the “BE” theory - - God created the world and spoke all that is into existence, and Genesis 1:3 says, “…let it be.” I believe God designs us to BE and that precedes our actions. So the question for you today is what do you be? What does it mean to be a minister’s wife? You are his family, his closest companion. You are the privileged person who witnesses his private struggles when no one else sees the pain or heartache, or difficult choices. You are the dinner date for the many and various special occasions. No one can fill God’s purpose for you but you; you cannot copy any other person. You...

Would you believe that doing whatever necessary for us once meant freezing eggs?  Yep, when it was necessary, we froze eggs. In our early days of ministry, the economy was similar to 2011. Life was uncertain. Gasoline prices spiked. People traded large vehicles for small cars. Most people who also lived on campus did whatever they could to provide for them, and to save and conserve. My creative husband went to the chicken farm nearby and bought eggs – lots of eggs! We learned that scrambled up eggs could be frozen and used later, so we packaged them in lots of two for cooking or baking, and larger packages for morning breakfasts. It was a lot of busy work yet somehow we felt good doing whatever was necessary to facilitate our new life in ministry. What challenges do you face because you “were led” of God to where you are now? John 4:4 says Jesus Filed under: Daily Devotions