Category: pastor’s wife life

As it turns out, I like to dawdle :)

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Anyone who knows me will tell you: I like to be productive. Relaxing isn’t really my thing.  It’s hard for me to “turn off”. Dawdling? Lingering, dallying, taking one’s time, being slow and idle wasting time – no, not for me. Definitely no.

Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us,

‘For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.

I like it. I like everything having a specific time.  I like routines and procedures and hard work and accomplishments and completion.  I like a beginning and an end.   Getting to check an item off my to-do list? Yes! “Oh rapture, oh bliss!” (sorry – obscure Gilbert and Sullivan reference there. The three people who got it enjoyed it!) 

Well, the other morning, in the middle of all my routines, I surprised myself. Michael and I had been on vacation (cabin in the middle of nowhere, no cell phones, no wi-fi, no TV, it was glorious!) and were set to leave the next day.  I know how long it takes me to get ready: 1 hour, 45 minutes.  It takes me that long every day, and trust me: the queen of routine has it timed down to the last minute.  Michael decided we would leave at 5:00am,  so we would miss traffic in both of the major cities we’d hit on the way home.  Okay, so quick math: I need to get up at 3:15 if I’m going to be ready. Yikes – 3:15? Even for an early bird like me, that’s crazy. If I skip my makeup and flat iron, maybe I can shave a few minutes off.  Who am I kidding  – I can skip make-up, but the flat iron is a non-negotiable.  Alright, I’ll set the alarm for 3:45 (still crazy, but less crazy, right?) and if I’m not ready, I’ll put make-up on in the car when the sun comes up.

The alarm went off at 3:45.  Lord Jesus help me, the alarm went off at 3:45.  Well, no time to dawdle (and I don’t like to dawdle anyway, right?), so I better get going.  Shower. Blow-dry. Dress. Flat iron. Don’t know what time it is, but Michael isn’t up yet, so I’ll start make-up and get as far as I can. All done! Made it in plenty of time – Michael is still in bed! Pack my morning stuff in my bag, suitcase is already packed from the night before.  Walk out to grab my phone and check the time.

It’s 4:15.  Yes, 4:15am. Seriously – I did ALL of that in 30 minutes?  How is this possible?  

While I was waiting out 45 minutes I had to spare, I considered the difference between this morning and every other morning of my adult life. Today, I used my time to shower-blow dry-flat iron-make up exclusively. What did I do yesterday and every other day?  Well, as it turns out: I was dawdling and loving it! Every other morning: I get up, and think about my day.  Pray. I exercise. Pray the workout would be over (not my most spiritual moment, just being honest). I go to the shower, and sit on the cool tile checking Facebook while I wait for hot water.  I find a show on Netflix and read closed captioning while I blow dry.  I read a little bit, I pray a little bit.  I eat breakfast (either a banana-spinach smoothie or Special K red berries, same every day).  I put make-up on. I cuddle my puppy (she has no delusions about herself like I did: she loves a dawdle and has no shame about it!). I look at the time – once I get to this point, I need about 10 minutes to dress and flat-iron, and I have plenty of time actually, so I read a little more, check a little more Facebook, pray a little more, think a little more, gather a little more quiet.

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I love those first hours of the day – there’s no schedule and there doesn’t have to be.  There’s no student or friend or family member with any demands on my time.  It’s not time to clock in at work yet.  It’s a wonderful time to dawdle and apparently I love to dawdle at the right time! There is a time for everything, even for dawdling – what a surprise!

What surprises you about your personality?  Ask the Lord to reveal to you something you didn’t know about yourself – something enjoyable you didn’t know about yourself. He delights in you – did you know that?  He is here to offer correction, but He is also here to enjoy a relationship with you, just the way you are!  Realizing that I like a daily dawdle was a nice surprise – and I’ll enjoy it a little more now, no shame!

Knowing that I can actually get ready in 30 minutes doesn’t make a difference: I’m gonna get up early tomorrow morning and dawdle all over again. I’m going to be thankful to the Lord for the realization that this time is a luxury, an unaccounted for gift, a “time to keep” like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3. Bonus for me: because I’m getting started early, I have lots more day left to enjoy and accomplish!

A “time to keep” is a treasure! No matter what your routines, I’m praying that you find a time to slow down and enjoy the presence of the Lord!

Jennifer ❤

EVERY sunday funday :)

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This probably won’t be my most popular share 🙂 but I love this story today:

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My son is home for the summer – hoping to answer God’s call and become a missionary one day, he is attending a ministry school/bible college out of state. We love having him home, and it does this mama’s heart good to see the twins under the same roof again! (It might have been harder seeing them separate from each other than seeing them separate from me, but we’ll keep that for another day!).

One thing I’ve been especially thankful for this summer is that fact that my children LOVE church. They come when we have service, they come to visit when we don’t have service. They are our best volunteers and biggest supporters. They are our biggest fans in ministry, and as they grow up, they are starting to minister themselves. Words cannot express what a joy that is – to serve the Lord alongside my sons and daughter!

Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts”. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, “these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”. We’ve received these as mandates, not suggestions, as parents. Though we are far from perfect, we’ve tried to model a Christ-like lifestyle before our children, and a HUGE part of that is church attendance.

Faithful church attendance isn’t easy. We come when it is convenient, we come when it is inconvenient. We come when we feel like it, we come when we don’t feel like it (yep, me too ). We came when they were babies (Sundays were tough then – hard to get a nap in between two services and Sunday School!). We came when they were toddlers (yep, dragging a cranky 3 year old through the sanctuary wasn’t the best fun – much less 2 of them!). Thursdays were a tough day as well – we had kept them up past their bedtime for church on Wednesday evening. We determined that the Lord gave them to us for a purpose, and that they must adhere to our worship schedule – not the other way around. I wasn’t supposed to let my babies or small children dictate when we attended church – I was supposed to model faithfulness before them and get them accustomed to our family’s schedule of worship.

As we came into elementary school years, we had to be purposeful in choosing activities that did not interfere with church, keeping our “end game” in mind. Church was a non-negotiable in our schedule, and it was a non-negotiable in our children’s schedules. We didn’t choose sports or other activities that may present a conflict, because that didn’t propel us toward the goal, and it may have sent a message to our children that there was something more important than being in church on Sunday. That would have been a mixed message – Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is”. Church is important.

In the teen years, we had to be purposeful in looking for jobs. Teens need gas money and fun money for sure! It’s not easy to find a job that allows Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings off, especially when one doesn’t have a degree or special skill set. We turned down lots of jobs, and we budgeted allowance from mom and dad to make up the difference until we found jobs that fit our schedule. It was a sacrifice for sure (but the Lord even honored that and all three of our children are gainfully employed AND regular church attenders!).  Not only jobs, but still choosing activities: we stayed out late for prom on Saturday (fun!), but guess what?  We came sleepy-eyed to church the next day.  If we had to make a choice between two, we chose church.

I mentioned the “end game” earlier. Know what the “end game” was? It was to raise Christians. I wasn’t trying to raise a professional athlete or teacher or social worker or CEO (though there’s nothing wrong being any of those things at all – but I was determined that successful adults in any profession raised in my house would value church). The goal was to raise young men and a young lady who loved the Lord. The goal was to surround them with godly people, with a body of believers who prayed for them, supported them, encouraged them – and we find that IN CHURCH. IN CHURCH, they heard the Word of God, reinforced what we taught them through the week at home. IN CHURCH, they found godly relationships and Christ-like examples to follow outside of mom and dad. IN CHURCH, they learned outreach and found for themselves the value of coming to the Lord for “times of refreshing” (Acts 3:19) and then living out their faith in the world throughout the week.

Church is a big part of our life.  I love seeing my children worship and minister. I love seeing my children laugh over a good game of Risk or Monopoly around my table. I love seeing them go out with friends or hang out at the pool. I love the relationship they have with us, with each other, with the church, and with the world. Life is full and happy and fun! They are going to be successful people. They are going to contribute something great to their communities. They are going to be known by their love of others (John 13:35). I made lots of glad sacrifices and lots of decisions as a mother, but one important decision, made daily, was to have them IN CHURCH. I am thankful for the Body of Christ, and beyond thankful that my children value this as well.

Who are you raising? What is the “end game”? Determine what the goal is and be consistent! Today and every day, my children’s faithfulness to the Lord is one of life’s greatest treasures. I’m praying that you will determine your goal.  I know that the Lord will help you to achieve it, even if it means sacrifice or discomfort. Pushing through to the goal – that’s a treasure too!

❤ Jennifer