Christmas is over and I vow to NEVER have another real Christmas tree again! It took me two hours to clean up the needles, and that was in addition to the time it took to my college-aged daughter to take off the ornaments and lights. Needles were everywhere. We kept stepping on them and the vacuum kept getting clogged because of them.

In the middle of cleaning up this mess, my daughter looked at me and said, "We should have left this mess for Dad to clean up. Dad is good at this kind of stuff."

And she is right. Dad is good at this kind of stuff. But now that Dad is a Pastor, he is too busy to do this kind of stuff. I had to explain to her that when a man is chosen to serve the church as a Pastor, he never really gets a day off. Oh, he might take a few hours each week to run errands or attend to some personal business, but a Pastor doesn't have one of those "9 - 5" jobs. He is always on duty. That is why he needs a good wife to help him. He needs someone to take care of the things that he is too busy for.

As I told her this, I realized why I never wanted to buy a real Christmas tree again . . . it wasn't that I was bothered by cleaning up the mess. The Lord knows that I have cleaned up greater messes. It was because, now that my husband's time is more consumed with the many "tasks" that the Lord has given to him, my time is more consumed with many tasks that he needs to give to me.

Tasks like doing the bills and typing up his Monday correspondence. Tasks like getting the oil changed in the car and making flyers for the "Big Days". Tasks like grocery shopping on a limited budget, copying the bulletin, driving the girls back to college, and making sure he has freshly ironed shirts each week ~ seven of them to be exact.

And the list goes on of the many things that he now needs me to do. He needs me to compliment him on his sermons (before he asks me about them). He needs me to listen to his ideas about planning Big Days and be excited about them (even if I don't understand how we will ever afford to do them). And he needs me to help him with the many ministries that he wants to get started (some of which I am the only volunteer willing to run them).

Yes, the life of a Pastor's Wife is a busy one, one filled with many added jobs and responsibilities. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm glad that God called my husband to be the Pastor of the Grace Baptist Church. And I'm glad that He chose me to be his wife.

The only thing I'm not glad about is my decision to buy a real Christmas tree this year . . . because I am still cleaning up the mess!
- Julie Fink

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