Please welcome our guest poster today, my friend Jill. She’s been a mentor to me for several years and I asked her to share her thoughts on ministry with you…
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First, let me say thank you to Laura for giving me the opportunity to write for her blog. I have known Laura several years. Our husbands were ministers together back in Security, Colorado. I counted her precious mother as my friend. She was a wonderful example to me. Laura was blessed with such a godly example of true womanhood. She is now carrying on her mother’s legacy of service.
Just a bit about myself before we begin since none of you know me. I have been married to the same guy for over 31 years. We have been blessed with 6 boys and 1 girl. We are in full time ministry here in Michigan. We have had 30 foster children over the years. Three of our children are grown and gone and have their own families now. We have 4 granddaughters and one grandson.
The question then about “ministry” is near and dear to my heart. Laura started out this series by saying our husbands and children ARE our ministry. That is probably the hardest concept for us Type A’s to wrap our brains around. If we fail at these two tasks we have lost. I have seen this concept abused. Some women feel that they can never reach out to others because it will get in the way of their main ministry. Their children in particular become everything to them, a kind of idol worship if you will. Their children and their children’s accomplishments define these moms. How very sad. Our children are given to us a gift and as a loan. Trust me, we only get them for a little while. Some of us have had the gut wrenching experience of having our children taken from us much too early. We have a limited time to instill a servants heart in these precious gifts called children.
My husband and I recently discussed once again my role outside the home. We are in full time ministry. I have been a stay at home mom now for 31 years. There is SO much I want to get done. We have an active ministry in the women’s shelter in town. There are so many ladies who need mentoring and the gospel shared with them. We have ladies in our congregation that need encouragement, they also need study of God’s word. I still have three boys left at home. We have been homeschooling now for years and years and you get the idea :). I have only 5 years left to instill in these boys everything we hold to be true and dear to us. I get easily distracted. It is easy to hand them their work and then go off and study with some woman who “needs me”. Each time I have to be kicked in pants (figuratively) and focused once again to the task at hand.
We want our boys to have a servants heart, so how do we balance that with the task of running the house and raising these boys? God came up with a great solution. He laid on my heart after one of the discussions with my hubby that I can still be an encouragement to the ladies through the internet. I could write a daily devotional about a particular scripture and its application for us*. What a great idea. I can still make a difference in the lives of the women I serve by reaching out to them through the blogosphere. What a great feeling to know that I am not neglecting my husband and children but still serving those along with my children I feel called to serve.
Ladies, we want to raise Godly children that have a heart for serving. That is my passion. There are many creative ways to minister. These are just some of the ways that I have found to be a blessing. My hubby reminds me that in just 5 short years I will have all the time I want to minister outside of these walls. I already know that it is SO worth it to invest in your children. All of my older children are such a blessing. Each in their own way reaches out and serves those who need it. I will never regret all the years I have spent serving them. When I get home I just want to hear those sweet words of the Master, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”
God Bless each of you as you look to ways to “minister”.
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*I receive Jill’s email devotional thought in my inbox each weekday morning and find them to be so encouraging! If you would like to be included in this list, please email her (jill6758 at cablespeed.com) You won’t be sorry!
Also…if you are involved in a ministry that does not take away from your important role as wife/mother…please email me (laura at heavenlyhomemakers.com). I’d love for you to share your great ministry ideas here!
Sarah says
A very thought provoking post. I often include my children in my ministries. Whether it’s serving dinner at the soup kitchen or making cards to show love to my unsaved family they are quite involved in most things.
Christy says
Thanks for the thoughts. It is interesting that so many ministry type things are centered in the church rather than homes. I’d love to see more about what we can do as moms, especially of little children. I am involved with La Leche League in helping new moms and although its not directly ministry related, it is helping and encouraging people and I love their model for meetings and how anything they do is very welcoming of babies coming right along with the mothers. I wish the church were a bit more like this.
Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home says
Thanks Jill (and Laura) for this encouraging post! It is so good to hear from a mom who has gone the distance and can say that it is worth it. Sometimes we young moms need to hear that, you know? :)
Sarah says
Just another ministry from home that I thought of this morning is writing to prisoners of the persecuted church. There is a great program here:http://www.persecution.net/writeprisoner.htm
Jeannie says
I am still trying to figure out how to balance mothering, being a wife and serving God in a meaningful way. To that end, my son Roman (~1 yr old) signed up to serve in a local nursing home. We will help with Bingo for the first time on Monday – my true hope is that we can in some way participate in reading the Bible or singing with the residence. I also believe it is vitally important for my son to understand the circle of life and serve those who go before him.
A Jeannie 2 says
Since I didnt want to be in confusion with the above Jeannie that placed a comment here, I am struggling with this right now, my husband is currently deployed and I have that habit of taking on too much too soon gotta be moving type mentality that I can see its really being a detriment to my own family and unfortunatly it is VERY true of todays Places of worship where they literally outsource the young moms and familys with lots of “ministries” without really looking at the big picture of our children and families should be our first and formost big ministry work… and even sadder is that some of these ministries with in the building are not keen on bringing the kiddos around….
Any how I caught something intersting in the article in reference to the name Security Colorado…that wouldnt happen to be the Security Wydefield Fountain area there in El Paso County Colorado that just sits outside of CS(colorado springs) if so what a small world …