PERFECTION

Good Morning, Father~

Thank You for wanting to be my Father. Thank You that before You created the world You saw the need for a Savior because You knew You wanted that relationship, yet You knew we would have to have the Perfect Mediator, Your Son. Thank You for seeing me as perfect through the blood He has shed so my sins have been forgiven.

Dear Lord, You know I understood, yet it hurt my heart when our daughter, a minister’s wife, and her husband returned from a recent reunion with their former ministerial classmates from years ago with word that not many young men are going into ministry today in comparison to the numbers of the late 1990’s. Tongue-in-cheek, with a bit of sarcasm in my tone, You heard me mutter, “I wonder why.” Not very nice of me, was it, Lord? Not that it makes my attitude right, but You know the trials ministers and their families go through. I do believe those trials are a part of the growth process, that they only make the very determined ones stronger, but I also see how discouraging they can be. I know what I’ve seen not only in my own family but also in others, so it’s no wonder that men don’t want to put their families through so much pain. It’s not always like a broken bone that eventually mends and becomes stronger where the original break was.

We have a tendency to expect a world’s view of perfection in the minister, his wife, and each of their children. You saw our son in ministry when he was taken to task by one member for “being too hard” and “using too much Scripture” while immediately being admonished/encouraged by another for “being too soft and needing to use more Scripture.” He called it, “Goldilocks and the Preacher’s Plight.”

How about the minister’s wife, Lord? Why is it that people make excuses for me (“You were tired, under stress, etc,”) if I slam a door because I’m angry, but perfection dictates a minister’s wife shall do no such deed. “She wears too much make-up.” (Did the person speaking see the burn scar hiding underneath?)

The children in a minister’s family become like bugs under a microscope, Lord. “They shouldn’t be allowed to play with THOSE kids!” “Homeschooling? They should be in public school!” “Public school? They should be being homeschooled!”

The same Book of Scripture that tells us “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.” (James 3:1 (NASB) also states, “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 (NASB) Thus, sometimes a decision has to be made, “Will my family’s and my spiritual lives be sound and grow if I stay in ministry?”

And Your church elders, Father. Your Word tells us to accept no word against an elder except at the mouth of two or three witnesses (I Timothy 5:19), yet if they do something a few in a congregation don’t like, a buzz begins. Their wives are not immune either. Your Word also has directives for their behavior. (I Timothy 3:11; Titus 2:3-5) Because of their situation, they are privy to some matters that require they be discreet, have wisdom and mercy. The wives of ministers and elders probably have a most difficult task in the church, Lord. Please continue to keep a watch over their tongues that they be the best helpmeets possible to their husbands in Your work.

And, Lord, each one of us needs to strive for perfection for our own selves. My understanding of the perfection You desire is maturity, not perfection as the world sees it. Being picky about the little things (using too much or too little scripture, too much make-up, home-schooling or not) sounds like children on a playground, not like mature adults…certainly not perfection.

Please help me to strive to be perfect as You, Lord, are perfect, in word and deed.

M. Sue 8-23-2011