Just before my husband graduated from seminary, the faculty wives set up a time to meet with the student wives. It was outdated, even in the 1970s, because about one third of seminary students were women, including me--now, it is more than half. But I went to their meeting, thinking that I'd be nice, and, besides, I was curious to see who was married to whom.
It was a very informatative meeting, but I hardly thought it could ever apply to me. After all, they were talking about the old days. Things weren't that way anymore. Then my husband and I were appointed to his first church. Boy, was I wrong. We moved to a county-seat town, but we might as well have moved to a third-world country as far as I was concerned. Please don't misunderstand, but we did suffer. The house was not well heated, food was scarce on our table, and there was no viable place for me to get a job. Sure, there were good times and fond memories--thank God-- but there was plenty of bad stuff too.
But our DS wife, Mary Morris, was a godsend. She befriended me as she did so many others. And at the time, I made a promise to help new wives too. I surely don't want anyone to go through what we did in that parsonage.
There are things you can do and there are people you can trust to help. If you don't need a willing ear, there are others who do. We all know new pastor families in our area. Join me and take the time to give them a call or welcome them with a batch of cookies.
Kathy
I was just saying to Matt last night, "no one told me what being a pastor's wife would be like." (other than saying "ready to move a lot?" I did hear that.)
ReplyDeleteI should have asked, I guess, but I didn't really think about it. I went into it with a rosy image that was quickly shattered. Then again, what good would knowing really have done? Would I have cancelled the wedding? Unlikely!