The Real Life of a Pastor's Wife

Things are changing around here.... well changing and staying the same in an interesting dynamic! I am no longer a youth pastor's wife, but I am still at the same time! We have recently resigned from FBC Troup, which was the place we have been serving longer than any other place before it. We have accepted the call to be church plant pastors and with that church plant youth pastors at the same time, at least until the baby church grows into needing additional staff. So I am now a pastor/youth pastor's wife; translation I am still just a normal, girl who happens to be married to some one in the ministry. I am blogging to make sure everyone knows that my family and I are not perfect,to share with everyone what God is doing in me and to give you a peek into the craziness that is my real life. It is my prayer that no matter how you found this blog, and no matter who you are, God will use these words to speak to your heart and draw you closer to Himself. I would love to hear from you; comments, questions, complaints, and randomness is always welcome!!

The family!

The family!

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

We Are The Body Part 1-What Big Ears You Have



I have been pretty sick this week and that helped me realize how much I take being well for granted and how much I need every part of my body to be working properly for my daily life to flow smoothly. And you guessed it, this also made me think about how the Bible says we (the church) are the Body of Christ and how badly the church needs all its members working properly for it to function smoothly as well. I think this will take more than one post because there is so much to be said, so I am planning a short series entitled "We are the Body".
So here goes... We are the Body Part 1- What Big Ears You Have
This weekend I had tons of family visiting for my middle daughter's 7th birthday party as well as for her baptism. Some came and left and a few stayed for most of the weekend. I loved it, but it is always a lot of work before, during and after family visits, and to make matters worse I started feeling bad on Friday. In an effort to make the most of the time I had with my family, I didn't slow down one bit and pushed through the weekend as best I could, but by Monday night I was in so much pain I got almost no sleep. My ear was swollen shut, my head was pounding, my face and neck were swollen and I was miserable. First thing Tuesday I called the doctor for an appointment and ended up getting 2 shots and four prescriptions, not to mention the "wick" she had to shove down my ear to help the medicine get past the swelling. My ear was the main source of my misery, it was throbbing with every heart beat, so swollen that my face was numb, I couldn't move my jaw to chew and even the outer part of my ear hurt, not to mention I still cannot hear out of it. In fact my ear hurt so bad that the air from a fan blowing on it was painful! I felt like the wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" with ear so big anyone could notice but in fact, no one could tell. Except me that is, I could sure tell, other than the pain the worst part was the inability to hear. I guess I just take hearing for granted, but when I suddenly couldn't hear it was really a problem. My girls were getting annoyed because I they had to repeat themselves several times before I understood what they were asking me, I felt uncomfortable driving, the TV had to be turned up way loud for me to hear it and I felt like I was in my own little world. I know that if my hearing never returned I would somehow learn to manage life just fine without it, but I sure would miss hearing the girls laugh, the birds sing, the bugs chirp and reading closed captioning on the TV would be a pain. :)
This is how it is in the church too. The bible is very clear that all the Christians are meant to work together to make up the Body of Christ. Each of us has a certain job and in conjunction with one another we can do the work that Jesus has left us here to do.We need everyone, the ears, the toes, the shoulders, everything for the church to function correctly. And when any one member is either not letting themselves be part of the work or is not functioning properly the whole body suffers, just like the problem with my ear effected so many other parts of my body. So many times I have heard people say, "My relationship with God is between Him and I, it is personal and I don't need anyone else to love Jesus and serve Him." But I have to disagree, there is no way that one person can carry out all the jobs of all the parts of the body alone, we need each other, and that person that is trying to live for God in solitude is denying the body, as a whole the use of the gifts they have been given to contribute. On a daily basis my ears do not get a lot of specialized attention, except for a quick scrub in the shower, but I felt incomplete when they started not working. And the church is the same way, she has many people whose jobs may go seemingly unnoticed until one day they don't get done.
"And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body." 1 Corinthians 12:16 It is my prayer that we are all using out gifts and abilities to build up the body or Christ and encouraging those around us to do the same. I hope my church never feels as bad and incomplete as I have this week, but enjoys the smooth flow of everything part working together properly with no extra big ears or missing toes!!