Tag Archive | in the church

A Princess Left in the Rain

Oct3


Do you have a princess of your very own? I do. Princess Gigi is 5, and she is full to overflowing with life and love. There is a boy her age at church that she dotes on. It is a strange relationship, because her level of attachment is very intense for a 5 year old girl that has a strong and healthy relationship with her whole family and with her Daddy especially. We do not encourage the attachment, not because there is anything wrong with the boy or his family, but because she is only 5. Continue reading →

Top 10 Expectations of a Minister’s Wife

Sep4


(Please don’t pass judgment until you have read the whole article. 

Not that anyone would ever do that, lol.)

As a blog owner, I enjoy viewing “search terms” that pointed someone to my blog. Recently, the term “expectations of a minister’s wife” popped up. That landed them on my Ministry Wives directory, because I didn’t have a post on that exact subject. But my gears have been turning : )

Then on FB just a bit ago, I posted that I was so tired, and a friend replied with: “I think naps and coffee are the best answer to dragginess. (And is it totally weird that I sometimes AM encouraged to know that people I look up to also feel tired at times?)”

And that was all it took—that little bit of inspiration from a reader to write this post.

Here is a Top Ten List of What I Expect Out of a Minister’s Wife.

1) I want a minister’s wife to be graceful, to encompass “ladylikelish” behavior (as my 5 year old Gigi would say). I want her to be demure and dressed nicely with modest necklines and hemlines, with her hair always fixed and her clothes matching and neatly put together.

2) I want a minister’s wife to be a piano player and a singer. Someone who can lead or someone who can follow. Someone who is just as comfortable blending in with the congregation as she is on the platform.

3) I expect a minister’s wife to pray and to read and study her Bible every day.

4) I expect a minister’s wife to never gossip, to never make an unpleasant remark about anyone, to always give people the benefit of the doubt.

5) I want a minister’s wife who loves all the members of the church, whose face lights up when the little ones play at her feet or whose face is compassionate when listening to the needs of the elders.

6) I expect a minister’s wife to always support her husband, to never embarrass him or to try to “one up” him in front of his congregation or his peers.

7) I expect a minister’s wife to be the first one to the altar and the last one to leave the altar.

8) I want a minister’s wife to have children who are well-behaved, well-dressed, and who are on fire for the Lord.

9) I want a minister’s wife who can sense when someone is hurting, and so she bakes them cookies or gives them a phone call or a hug, just to let them know she cares.

10) I expect a minister’s wife to be frugal with her money, but not cheap.

I listed all of those in the order that they came to mind. No editing. No rearranging. I am a people studier, and if you are, too, then you should have a field day with this list : )

What troubles me most is that I don’t live up to my own expectations. How can I expect anyone else to?

I was so quick to spit out these ten expectations that no single woman could ever live up to. Especially not me.

Oh, God, create in me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit! This is my battle cry! I am so imperfect and broken.

I am not perfect. Please don’t expect me to be. Your pastor’s wife isn’t perfect, either. She is this creation that God calls “woman”. She was taken from an imperfect man, and so she herself can never be perfect. But she tries. Most days. Some days, she is the hurting one; she is the one in need. She has PMS, too. She has a family, too. She would enjoy just laying around in her nightgown all day, too, sometimes.

Be kind to the ministry wives in your life.

Be kind to all the women in your life.

Be kind to all the people in your life.

Be kind to yourself.

What are some of your expectations of yourself that you are failing at / succeeding at?  The comments here are helpful to the ones who come here for advice and encouragement.

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Angry Bird Pizza Tutorial and a “Kids Can” lesson

Aug17

I saw the Angry Bird Pizza floating around FB last week. Even though I have never played Angry Birds, I knew that the kids would love this pizza. They love pizza. How much more so in the style of the red, angry bird?

Our church has a children’s program each Wednesday night. The name of our children’s program is “Kids Can”. Each week has a different theme.

Kids Can Listen (story)

Kids Can Craft

Kids Can Sing

Kids Can Serve

I lead the Kids Can Craft, which has been involving food lately. Every kids program involves food, so I just make mine the center of attention. Instead of having the snack take away from our time, I incorporate it.

So I tied in an object lesson with the Angry Bird pizza.

Angry Bird Pizza Ingredients

  • I didn’t want to take the time to make my own pizza dough, so I picked up a package of 2 Mama Mia crusts ($3.50).
  • Every couple of weeks or so I make my own pizza sauce, so I poured out a cup and a half of that (or 2 ½ if you want to follow my “in retrospect” below), which is enough for both pizzas. If you buy your own, I think it’s a dollar ($1).
  • I bought a long stick of pepperoni. The pre-sliced pepperoni is twice as much money. Just make sure to cut the skin off the pepperoni stick before you cut it into slices. One stick did both pizzas. ($5.50)
  • 1 slice of American cheese or a block of cheddar cheese that you can cut from. ($2 for the whole package)
  • 4 cups of Mozzarella cheese. ($5)
  • 2 slices of white cheese or a block of white cheese that you can cut from. ($2 for the whole package)
  • small can of black olives ($1)
  • vegetable or olive oil (spray or bottled)
  • So if you have to buy every single ingredient at one time, be prepared to spend $20, which will make TWO pizzas.

Angry Bird Pizza Directions


  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  • You will need approximately 50 slices of pepperoni per pizza, so get to slicing while your oven is preheating. (half a stick per pizza)
  • If you are using prepackaged, ready-to-decorate pizza crust, then you will need to cut two notches out of the top for the hair of the bird. If you are making your own or if you bought pizza dough in the refrigerator section, then stretch out two notches for the hair.
  • Put the pizza dough on your selected pan and either spray or brush with oil.
  • Pour ¾ cup of pizza sauce in the middle of the pizza and spread over the crust. (In retrospect, I would probably have added more pizza sauce on top of the cheese that was going to be covered in pepperoni, which would have taken another half a cup. So if you want to do that, then 1 ¼ cup total per pizza.)
  • Cover the pizza with the mozzarella cheese (approx. 2 cups per pizza).
  • Imagine the pizza as 8 triangles and cover six consecutive triangles with pepperoni. Don’t forget the hair notches.
  • For the eyes, you need two circular pieces. If you have sliced cheese, it’s easier. If you have a block of cheese, then you need to cut you thin slice from the broad side. After you have your selected slices, find a circular object of the right size and punch out the eyes. I used the lid from the spray oil can. Perfect!
  • Place the eyes just so.
  • Create your eyebrows and pupils from the black olives. Personally, I knew that my kids group wouldn’t eat the black olives, so I used black construction paper for the eyebrows and google eyes for the pupils and put those on AFTER it had cooked. And removed them BEFORE eating : )
  • For the mouth, you will need to cut out the mouth shape. This is easier with a sturdier, block of cheddar cheese, but I managed to not decimate my single slice too bad. I was able to get two mouths (one for each pizza) out of the only slice of American cheese that I had.

Kids Can Craft Object Lesson

My lesson was over how Christians are supposed to act verses how the world sees Christians. Chances are that if you ask a non-Christian what they think about Christians, then you will get some very poor descriptions. You will hear words like hypocrite, liar, abusers, etc. Not a pretty picture. They EXPECT us to be like that, because that has been the experience that they have had with non-rooted Christians.

We covered the FRUIT of the spirit—not fruitS, but one FRUIT, you have to have them all—and some other key verses like 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Proverbs 6:16, which tells us what God hates. Lying is actually listed before murder, which I find interesting.

So I asked the kids to describe to me what a pizza looks like, and of course they perfectly described what a normal pizza looks like. I said that we were going to have pizza for our snack, and then I pulled out my Angry Bird pizza. The room was filled with “oohs” and “aahhhs”. Do you see my point? Be better than what the world expects. Be the kind of Christian that makes them want a piece of what you’ve got.

When those kids are 35, they will still remember that Angry Bird pizza. But I hope they remember the lesson : )

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