Glimpses of Grace
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~Jennifer Whitney
~Former SemWife
Second, document for you and your family all of the ways that God blesses you throughout your time here. Those may be important things for you to cling to one day and a heritage to pass on to your children. And, possibly most important, realize that God has given you as your husband’s wife an immense amount of power to make this experience an amazingly positive one or one where you all just get by. We are one flesh with our husbands and much of our husband’s growth and success here and in ministry will be based on our own attitudes towards being here.
In closing, though I may have come kicking and screaming, now, as we enter what may be our last year of seminary, I know that I will be forever grateful and humbled before God that He brought us to this place. I praise Him that He took many of the dreams I had from me and exchanged them for something I wouldn’t have chosen on my own but have found joy in. Thank you for reading and may God bless your year.
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~Sally Terrel
~Former SemWife
“The more you wiggle the longer it takes.” These words reverberated back to me as I spoke them to my two year old daughter, Meg. As often happens when I discipline my sweet Meg, I end up checking my heart at the same time and usually realize that I, too, need to replace my heart of grumbling and complaining with a happy one. I was not delighting in where God had called us. That morning last fall I began my own journey of letting go of the “wiggle” I was having with God and instead allowing Him to move my heart to where my body had already come.
I want to encourage you to run to the Lord and skip the wiggle! May this journey you are beginning, or continuing like me, bring a blessing, and in His likeness let us wake ready and willing to obey with a happy heart!
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~A.A.
~Grace missionary wife
Recently it was my deepest privilege to encounter a modern-day manifestation of “the widow’s mite”. After the Sunday morning service, an elderly friend of mine came over to say hello. She wasn’t quite as bouncy and cheerful as usual, but when I asked how things were going she had no complaints. This is a wonderful Christian lady whose husband died, and yet she somehow subsists on a miniscule government pension. As we spoke, I felt the Lord nudging me to go visit her with as much food as I could carry.
The next day I went to her apartment with as many groceries as I dared, knowing that I would get a tongue-lashing. After scolding me for carrying that much up four flights of stairs, she was horrified to discover that it was all food for her. [The Slavic people are very generous and hospitable. They want to be on the giving end, especially when it comes to families with young children.] After she saw that it was useless to protest (you have to learn to be just as bossy right back to them), I was shocked when she actually burst into tears! I started to think that maybe I had crossed some invisible cultural line… again.
After literally sobbing her thanks to the Lord in prayer, she told me this story: “The previous day, there had been a big presentation in church of the team we were sending out for evangelization. The pastor had asked the congregation to sacrifice so the team would be able to be on their way. She had had only five greeven (a little under a dollar) left to live on until next month’s pension payment. She prayed, ‘Well Lord, it’s not very much, but how can I keep it to myself?’ and put it in the offering plate. When I showed up the next day with many times that much in food, she just couldn’t believe how He had provided.”
If my story ended there, it would be touching enough by itself. But I was astounded when suddenly her eyes lit up, and she said, “I have to go give some of this to my neighbor downstairs! She has less than I do – when her granddaughter comes over she only has noodles to feed her!”
My happiness at having been the delivery person was replaced with total awe at being in the presence of an absolute spiritual giant.
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~A.D.
~A Pastor's Wife
I'm Convinced Seminary Was For Me!
I look back on four years of seminary with my husband and I praise the Lord for countless provisions and a lifetime of lessons learned. How could I ever have been uprooted and taken to Wisconsin without the preparation the Lord gave me through my husband's seminary experience. How could I have been prepared to watch my husband soar into the role he has always wanted to play, had I not been put through seminary?
I grew up in sunny, Southern California. I started listening to Pastor John's sermons before I could understand one word he said. When I was married and my husband started seminary I began to put it all together. I learned that sacrifices were expected of me. By faith, I had to expect that they wouldn't go unrewarded. I wasn't raised up to indulge myself in a life of comfort and be the recipient of all of that great teaching so that I could become better at being comfortable and more self-indulgent.
The Lord wanted to teach me to sacrifice some comforts like time with my husband, and littlemoney which meant many other sacrifices. However, those sacrifices would produce in me priceless and timeless blessings. My husband's seminary career became a foundation for my own spiritual growth in ways I never expected. Had I fought against those lessons, I have a feeling seminary would have been miserable and I would still be miserable to this day.
The lessons I learned about the body of Christ and His kingdom world-wide, have stayed with me ever since. Releasing my husband to study God's word meant that he could effect hundreds, possibly even thousands of other people for Christ in his lifetime. My small sacrifices (which didn't seem small at the time) would produce large benefits to other believers and do some serious damage to darkness. That is, after all why we're here.......Right? So, evenings without my husband and dinners consisting of Mac-n-cheese and canned green beans can be turned into:
- The salvation of the lost who have told me "I never thought I could understand God's Word..........I never thought I could be sure of heaven."
- Baptism services where, through tears if joy, moments of release and relief are related about that first time they heard the gospel. And how they have been changed ever since by the Spriit of God and the faithful teaching of His Word.
- Parents telling us what victory they are having with their children since they started understanding the Scriptures.
- People in our congregation growing in love, obedience, discernment, and fascination with their God.
I'd do it all again just to see these lost ones saved by the hearing of the Word of God, through my husband! If you just give in to the sanctifying work the Spirit wants to do in you now, it will all be worth it in the end! I promise!
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~Sarah Shearer
~Former SemWife
One of the blessings at The Master’s Seminary is the Pastor’s Home class offered each spring. When my husband’s opportunity to take the class came the Lord provided babysitters so that I could attend with him. Our challenge--my challenge--is that we live 35 miles south of the seminary. This meant traveling through the heaviest traffic in the heart of Los Angeles. The last night of our class was the Friday before Memorial Day, and we knew the traffic would be even more unbearable than usual. Since, my husband’s motorcycle would make for a faster trip. I built up the courage (with prayer) to ride with him on his motorcycle.
During the trip I had no control over where we went or how fast we were going. No matter how frightening that was at points, I had to trust him implicitly. All I could think about was how this was a picture of God-given roles in marriage. My husband is to be the leader, learner, and lover; I am to be the supportive and submissive help-meet. I must be willing to give my husband control, trusting his life skills and obedience to God’s Word as he leads our family. 1 Peter 3:4-6 is a great source of encouragement to me in this.
But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
Just as my husband and I took longer and longer rides to prepare for that big 35 mile trip through the L.A. rush hour traffic, I need to trust my husband in the big decisions of life by letting him lead more and more in the small decisions we face daily. Then, working together in our God-given roles, we will be able to go farther and faster as we serve Christ in this world.
My happiness at having been the delivery person was replaced with total awe at being in the presence of an absolute spiritual giant.
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