15 Things the Preacher’s Wife Wants You to Know
Being a Preacher’s wife is an incredibly unique and special experience. It’s filled with joy, challenges, laughter, and tears. Time and time again, I am blow away by the love and support that we receive from our church family. There is no greater job than working with the Church! Even through the challenges that ministry brings it is completely worth it. This blog article is to show you a few of the things that most preacher’s wives want you to know. Spoiler Alert: most of them are good things!
I genuinely want to get to know each of you!
Even if I don’t have time to get around and talk with each of you every week, I still long for that connection with every church member.
I appreciate all of your prayers
Being a Preacher’s wife has so many blessings, but sometimes the heartaches of those that ask for our help greatly weighs on our minds. Being a preacher’s wife means getting to see the best moments and worst moments in the members lives, and needing to support them through all of them. Prayers to be able to handle all of it, will always be appreciated!
Criticism aimed at my husband will affect me more than it will him.
Preacher’s wives see how much love and time our husband’s pour into every lesson, prayer, song, Lord’s Supper talk, or Bible class. So when the criticism comes, it hurts us. There is no one more proud of the preacher, than his wife. She is his biggest cheerleader and sees so much more to him, than anyone else.
Seeing people grow in their faith bring me so much joy!
Preacher’s wives have seen how quickly the world can distract someone who is faithful, causing them to fall away. So when I see someone who has growth and is excited about God, there is nothing that makes me happier than that. If you are in my church congregation and want someone to cheer you on when you are growing in your faith, reach out to me, I will be there to cheer you on!
My own Spiritual Journey has its ups and downs.
I am a typical human just like everyone else. I have bad days, or bad weeks. I let our lives get too busy. I struggle with insecurities and comparison like everyone else. I will not have my Spiritual health all together all of the time. I will have days where I am incredibly faithful, and other days where I feel distant from God. I need encouragement just like everyone else.
I don’t want special treatment!
I don’t want to feel the pressure of having to be “perfect” all of the time. I don’t want anyone to think that I am more special than anyone else. I just want to be a servant, and I don’t want the lime light or credit. I want to just be a helper in the tasks that I can help with, and bring glory to God. I don’t want any of the other member to feel like they are “less” important than me because they definitely aren’t!
Sometimes I get tired of filling in last minute.
I love any opportunity to teach in a Ladies class, but I place a big importance in preparing for the study. I will spend several hours studying the scriptures before I teach it just to make sure that I am not taking anything out of context. Teachers are told in scripture that we will have more judgement with how we handle God’s Word (James 3:1 “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness…”). So being asked last minute time after time, makes us question if we are properly handling God’s Word. With everyone that teaches, they should take God’s Words so seriously, and make sure not to mislead or cause someone to stumble. We want time to prepare our lessons because of this. But we do still want the opportunities to give lessons for the ladies. We love sharing our love of God with others!
I love getting to see all of the special moments in your life!
From the new born babies, to the newly weds. We love being there and cheering everyone on. We love when the teen girls tell us the exciting things going on in their lives. We love when the little kids come and tell us about Bible class. We love when the older members come and tell us about their glory days. We love just getting to be apart of your lives!
I appreciate every working member in the church!
We see the love and effort that everyone who is working puts into their tasks. We might not always get to say thank you in person, but we are grateful and appreciated of your service! We know that we couldn’t do it without every single Church member.
My children shouldn’t be expected to be “the examples” at all times.
We often get told that since we are the preacher’s family, our kids should be the example in the congregation. And while that is true for most of the time, we also get frustrated at the stress of trying to keep our kids in that narrow line. Our kids will not always be prefect or the best example, because they are kids just like any other kid. We as preacher’s wives often feel like our kids are sometimes held to a higher standard than the rest, and we want our kids to just be looked at the same as all the rest. Our family is not more special than any other family, especially our kids.
I see the potential in our church!
Sometimes we see so much potential in the church that we are left feeling frustrated when it is not growing in that direction quickly. We see the good in all of the members, and want everyone to get to the best versions of themselves, and thus allowing the church to become the best version of itself also. We see the potential and pray for that growth!
I love and pray for each and everyone of you!
We as preacher’s wives often don’t get to express our love to every single church member as often as we should, but we genuinely do love every single one of the members in our congregation. We pray for the members often, and know that they are in need of our love and prayer. So if you ever doubt that a preacher’s wife cares for you, know that it is not true. A preacher’s wife often cares too much, because we have so much love to give from our overflow from God!
I am often behind the scenes.
There are so many tasks that a preacher’s wife does during the week. Sometimes it’s helping her husband print off papers for church. Sometimes it’s helping coordinate events. And sometimes it’s even cleaning up the auditorium. Sometimes most people don’t get to see my greatest achievements for the church, but we are still happy to do them!
Your acts of kindness towards me or my family have been very meaningful.
For every hand written note, hand made gift, gift card, hug, or smile each have been meaningful to me. Those are the things that I think of during the hard moments in ministry. Those are some of the things that keep us going when life gets tough. We appreciate them more than you will ever know!
I’m in this for the long haul!
There is no one more committed to wanting to see the church grow than the preacher and his wife. We want to be the positive influence that helps others see Christ, and draw closer to Him. We want to see each church member learn how to evangelize, and growing the church numerically. We want to see the church grow and flourish!
About the Author: My name is Katie, and I’m a Church of Christ Preacher’s wife in Kentucky. I am also a proud homeschool mom to two brilliant boys. I love to craft, and make and bind my own notebooks. I also make a weekly podcast show called “Just Bible No Fluff",” where I skip all of fluffy extras and hop right into a short yet impactful exegetical study of the scripture. My mission and vision in life is this: “To empower women Spiritually by enhancing their skills in deep Bible study, equipping them to effectively teach the Gospel to others, and guiding them in cultivating Spiritual growth beyond the Church building.”