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<a href="http://www.lifeway.com/cuteshoes" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Check out my book!" src="http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u80/thepreacherswife/cuteshoesblogbutton.jpg"/></a>Intercession
M2M Blogroll
More Favorites
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August 26th – September 8th
Be sure to visit these ladies, connect with them, and read more about their hearts, their journeys and their families!
Julie @ Come Have a Peace
Cindy @ Consider It All Joy
Natalie @ Delightful Details
Wendy @ Learning Through the Heartbreak of Loss
Jamy @ Jamy Fisher
This is not a blog contest. This is just a way to put your blog in a more accessible spot to allow more women to find your link, visit your blog and connect with you. The Featured M2M Blogs are listed down the right hand column of The Preacher’s Wife. We will choose five new blogs every two weeks on Fridays. To become a featured blog, all you have to do is be listed on the M2M Blogroll and be an active blogger. Email m2mblogroll[at]apreacherswife[dot]com to request to add your blog to the blogroll.
Security In The Spotlight – From a Grown Up PK turned Pastor’s Wife
by Amy Toornstra
At age five, I was the cute preacher daughter with my “nearly white” blonde hair and giant blue eyes. The elderly ladies doted over me. My family spent countless Sunday noon lunches at church member’s homes. My sister, brother, and I were “little entertainers” and loved the extra attention. I was a normal kid like every other child in the church, but I was often thrust into the spotlight. While it rarely bothered me as child, the spotlight became more evident as entered into awkward adolescence.
At some point I was not very cute anymore. In seventh my grade my family moved to another church one state over. I was a scrawny tomboyish junior high girl with bad hair and braces who craved friends within our church. After making an effort to become friends with the other girls for two years, I lost hope. I decided to attend youth group (with the support of my parents and our church council) at a different church where I flourished with friends. Around this time conflict erupted between people in our church entrapping my dad in a state of depression. I wanted to walk away from the church entirely. But I didn’t. I realized at that point in my life that God was bigger than the arguments that were ripping our church apart. He had a perfect plan for me. Little did I know that plan included re-entering the spotlight.
At some point in your ministry you, your spouse, and/or your children will face times of loneliness, pain, and frustration. It is inevitable. I grew bitter at the church and it was difficult to express this to my family. I worried about being judged or misunderstood. I was grateful for all the breaks from the stress of church life. My parents were intentional about creating meaningful family vacations. In the times when it was difficult to separate yourself from the frustrations, counseling was something several members of my family benefited from. Including me.
It is easy to be a mommy of PK’s right now. My children are five, three and one and irresistibly cute. Church members pass them around and give them treats. While I do not know what the future holds, I know I want to be available when it gets challenging. As parents in the ministry, let us make any effort to love and nurture our children no matter what age they are. They crave our undivided attention and long for quality time with us. The ministry is not easy for us. We have to remember it is difficult for them too.
Amy is a mom to three kids (ages 6, 3 1/2, and 22 months) and a pastor’s wife. They live in Salem, Oregon. She’s a news correspondent for The Banner and she blogs at Everyday Mom She enjoys running, digital scrap booking, and writing.
*Are you interested in writing an article for Called Out? Do you know someone who might? Be sure to check out our submission guidelines. If you have any questions or are ready to submit your article, please email us at submissions@apreacherswife.com. We’ve loved what we’ve received, so please keep them coming! Look for our next Called Out article on September 2.
The kids went back to school today and I’m officially the mom of a Sophomore, 8th, 6th, and 3rd grader. I’m a little freaked out to think I have one graduating in a couple of years but Sydney reminds me we’ll still be doing school for a while yet. I’m happy about that because she is the only one who let me walk her into class this morning and put her supplies away and take her picture and talk to all of her friends and then kiss her before her teacher politely asks me to leave now before she calls security. The boys? We didn’t do any of that. Even though they have all outgrown me, I still have to fight the urge to walk them to their lockers and make sure they get their combinations right and decorate their doors with cute magnets with their names on them (Can never find one with ’Sawyer’?). I’m still learning how to be a detached, hand-shake if you are lucky, mom of teens. May it always be a struggle.
Perhaps to offset any sadness, I had a ridiculously sweet time with Jesus this morning at my favorite spot in the park where I go when I drop the kids. I cracked the cover on a brand new journal a dear friend gave me for my birthday. (I adore it, Tera F.!) There’s a slight hint of fall in the air, football jamboree is Thursday, I get to teach a retreat this weekend for some darling girls I can’t wait to meet. Always in the mix are some complicated things on the sublevel, and yet even deeper than that is joy in another day of being confident the Lord Jesus holds me and mine and you and yours in the palm of His capable hand.
Maybe that explains why I almost feel giddy this morning to jump on here and say hello to anyone out there who is still popping by here from time to time. I got over making excuses long ago but here’s praying a return to routine will also mark the return of more frequent communication. I’ve missed writing and I’ve missed you.
To celebrate the return of routine (to those of you with school-aged kids) how does the structure of your day change once the children are back in school? Have any return-to-class resolutions? If you don’t have young kids, maybe you need inspiration to kick start a more productive schedule. My desire which I pray desperately shapes my actions is to hear, receive, and bear fruit in response to God’s Word one hundredfold (Mark 4) and to figure out what that is supposed to look like in this season. I used to think I was more of a tenfold girl (on a good day!) with my kids at home but the Lord comforted me long ago with the understanding that loving our children and caring for our families IS PRODUCTIVE even if the laundry doesn’t get done or that book doesn’t get written. Don’t undervalue the fruit of your labors, sisters. Mothering matters.
Don’t know how I got off on that tangent but you know how I do.
Did I mention I’m happy to talk to you?
P.S. And for goodness sakes, how are you moms who sent babies to college faring? I can’t bear to think of it. My mom’s heart is having you over for coffee and a cry and a night out to see The Help. I finished the book, am dying to see the film, and according to my friends who have seen it, it will be the cure to all that ails us.
