Books You’d Enjoy {plus a must read for MW’s!}

Don’t you love burying yourself in a warm blanket during a crisp fall evening and devouring a great book? I do! So, after starting and stopping several books and failing to find one that interested me last month, I was really disappointed.

But, good news! Things are on an uptick, reading-wise. 🙂

Right now, I’m plodding through Lark Rise to Candleford because I’ve heard so many great things about the BBC series. I don’t read fiction often, but the stories of this little hamlet community are so endearing.

Battle-Ready Moms Raising Battle-Ready Kids has been excellent. I almost passed this book by because the author is not married and has never been a mother. I would have been missing out! Reba Bowman has many great insights in this little book. I’m half way through and loving it.

I’m also re-reading Forever: Why You Can’t Live Without It by Paul Tripp because it was just so good the first time around. It’s about living with an eternal outlook. “Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth”–because we are citizens of a heavenly country!

But my favorite read of the week is  The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart by Christine Hoover. (By the way, the Kindle version is temporarily $1.99) Now, we aren’t church planters, but as promised, this book is applicable to any of you ministry wives out there, from a pastor/youth pastor’s wife, to missionary’s wife, evangelist’s wife.  This book is just invaluable. It’s all about placing your ideals on the back burner so you can embrace the “real”–what God is allowing right now in your life. Not what you want, not what you’d hoped for, but for the here and now. I don’t want to give it all away, so I’ll give you a few thoughts that I had after reading it.

Supporting a man in the ministry is a joy. It’s also hard sometimes. It’s really hard sometimes. So, now what?

When life gets hard, you can focus on yourself and spiral into depression, self-pity, hide yourself away from the criticism or you can step out in faith and choose to walk God’s way–forgiving, reaching out, seeking to restore broken relationships rather than fuel church feuds, and serving without expecting anything. You can see all of the trials that come your way as God’s way of changing you! It’s all about your heart.

This quote says it all:

“The state of my heart determines my ministry and influence.” Christine Hoover

We know that a depressed Christian is a very poor advertisement for the gospel, right? 🙂 If you’re feeling disillusioned, resentful, burnt out, or if you find yourself competing with your husband for your own separate honor in the church, a feeling of “people need to notice me!”– it’s time to re-examine your heart.

Ask yourself:

Am I serving for ulterior motives?

Am I serving so that people will give me something in return? Respect, admiration, acknowledgement?

In ministry, do you let God use you His way or are you ultimately using God?

When our hearts screams

• Nobody appreciates me!
• Nobody respects me!
• I should have been asked to do that job! After all, I AM the __________. (fill in your ministry title)
• Here I am cooking and cleaning behind the scenes while He does all the worthwhile stuff.
• I want to be acknowledged publicly for all I’ve done!
• I’ve been overlooked and slighted by other women in the church.
• I can’t believe she’d go to so-and-so for counsel. Why didn’t she come to me? After all, I’m the _______________(insert ministry title)
• Life would have been better if I had _______________.

it’s time to admit that we’re not what we appear on the outside. We’re all spiffed up on the outside but our hearts are a mess. And, honestly, God loves you too much to let you go on in such a train-wreck of a condition. 🙂 Self-pity has to go. Pride which isolates itself from others and never allows for redeeming friendships needs to be replaced with humility and transparency about your own weaknesses. While our husbands preach forgiveness, we’ve got unforgiveness and a laundry list of grievances against others that come spewing out of our mouths at alarming rates, given the right circumstances.

This book addresses many frustrations in ministry. Sometimes God allows us to be frustrated in ministry because we are not focused on the right things. He sets you aside so you can work on your sharp tongue or judgmental attitude. Perhaps he closes doors on you (which feels like you have been overlooked) so you’ll be forced to deal with the ugliness that comes out when you are overlooked–the venom all tucked up in the tiny recesses of your heart. Maybe He’s allowed people to oppose you to see if you’ll respond in humility this time or in your old, familiar patterns like anger, self-pity and seething resentment.

He’s allowed, no ordained your life for your good. Your responses determine whether you thrive or merely survive. Whether you are a blessing or a curse to your husband and others.

Oh yes, this is a good read, MW’s. 🙂

By the way, you do know that you can sign up for a free one month trial of Amazon Prime right now, right?  I use it so often because it’s quick–two day free shipping–>and shipping is so ridiculous expensive these days! I can hop online and mail stuff to Bek and Em at college with no shipping. It’s so worth it to me. (We also enjoy watching some of the free movies that come with the Prime Membership.) And with the holidays looming, it is a huge help with shipping costs. 🙂 You’re welcome!

What are you reading right now? Any great recommendations for me?

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