This is not a feel-sorry-for-us article, but it is written to bring to the church’s attention a very important member who frequently sacrifices a lot but may be overlooked. Every church needs a healthy pastor’s wife. I have had the privilege of being a pastor’s wife for 20 years. Honestly, I did not have a clue how to do it or what my job description was, but I continued to learn over the years. It is the responsibility of women of God who are older in the faith or more experienced to help younger women coming into full-time ministry or who are married to pastors. Here are 10 challenges pastors’ wives face:
- They give their husband over to the ministry and the congregation.
- Their personal time, vacations and holidays can be interrupted at any time due to a congregational crisis.
- They most likely tend to the home and the children most of the time because most church functions are in the evenings and on weekends.
- They don’t always get recognized or shown appreciation for how they support or help their husband.
- They are the usually the pastor’s counselor and confidant, and can carry the weight of their husband’s burdens.
- They usually do not have close friends or someone they can confide in, so they hold a lot in and can feel alone or isolated.
- Most of the time, people pray for the pastor and not usually for his wife or the children.
- The pastor’s wife usually doesn’t get invited to other women’s outings from the congregation because of who she is and who she is married to.
- When she has a problem or needs prayer, she doesn’t want to burden her husband and cannot go to anyone in the congregation.
- When she has marriage issues or is upset with her husband, she cannot go to her pastor because her pastor is her husband.
Pastor’s wife, you are precious to the Lord. He has a plan and purpose for your life and you are very significant to the Lord, to your husband and your church congregation. Know that you can do all this through Him who gives you strength (Phil. 4:13).
Along with her husband, Pastor Luis Reyes, Tricia Reyes is the co-founder of The New Church Of Joy in Waukegan, Illinois. She is a blogger, author and helps manage her daughter Madison’s (Maddie Rey) Music Ministry. She is a devoted wife and mother to Madison and Matthew and loves the Lord with all her heart! To learn more about Tricia’s ministry or to book her for a Women’s Event/Conference visit her website at triciareyes.com or thenewchurchofjoy.com.