The Laymans wife...

I am about to share my heart with you. Not sure why. But I really feel led by the LORD...

Many of you know that my sweet Joshua is a United States Marine. To him I have been happily married for seven years now. Not that we have the perfect marriage by any means. But I like to think that we are at the utmost of happeiness. I have a deep love for our military being that my father was also a former Marine himself (I know once a Marine always a Marine...). I grew up having a certain respect for the men and women that serve our country. After salvation though I have often wondered why Joshua would not just surrender to full time ministry. Now more then ever I have asked my self this question. Not that I feel that we would even be the best pick from our Heavenly Father. I have a real burden to serve the LORD. I have such a burden for home and foreign missions. And I know that Joshua also shares the same burden. I have often questioned if he is not following the LORD, and if he is just making his own decisions.

Over the past few months the LORD has really shown me some things. I have seen the Lord's hand in a mighty way. For this I am thankful. I have complete peace with what ever the Lord would have us to do.

I do not know if any of you whom are married to a Laymen have ever had the same thoughts. Maybe you have but are a little leery of admitting it. Trust me I am even now as I right this. But in my daily devotions and through preaching I have seen how much the Lord needs good lay people. Not every man will be called to full time Christian service. But they are all called to full time ministry. There are many ministries in the Church that can only be done by the laymen. There are many people to be reached that only the laymen will reach and there are many battles to be fought for the Christian Faith and for the freedoms that we have that will only be fought and won by the laymen.

I have been so convicted about how I need to encourage my Joshua more. We are young and have a lot of people that have tried to tell him that the right thing for him to do would be to get out of the military and surrender his life to full time service weather it be to the mission field or to be a preacher. And I sadly admit that I have hinted this on more than one occasion.

After confiding a little in a fellow more mature military wife who is married to a wonderful Godly man, the advice she gave me was stop listening to others and just follow. That my husband will be led by the LORD and that I need to encourage him and follow with a happy heart. Some of the best advice I have gotten. And yet so simple.

I started reading about men in the Bible that were great men of God and that were also Laymen. Many of them even Warriors... (I say Warriors because Army men are called soldiers and Marines are Warriors =)..) Joshua and David were a few men that I looked at. I have come to be content with being a layman's wife. I do not say it as if it were a bad thing. I have found the beauty in it that I have not seen before. When you are young and around many people your own age whom husbands are being called to the ministry, you start to wonder is there something wrong with my husband. Is he not listening. But I have found the contrary. He is listening loud and clear. He wants nothing more than to be in the will of God. He knows that the LORD would have him right where he is and he is totally willing that if one day soon or far off the Lord would call him to full time service he says he is ready.

All the time I should have been thankful for what the Lord has made my husband. But when I step back and take a look I have been so discontent with whom he has given me. Not in Joshua himself but in the vocation that he has been placed. I love the military life. There are so many benefits, along with the negatives. But there would be negatives if he were a preacher or a missionary also.

I know that there are some people who are questioning his decisions and are not fully supporting him. But I will not be one of them anymore. I will be happy with being a layman's wife and see the joy that there is serving along side of such a great and mighty man. Why do we as wives always have some great idea for our men? I do not think that it is a bad thing. I think that we see them at there best and know what they are capable of. But when I started thinking that everyone else must be right I was saying that he was not spiritual enough. Shame one me.

After re-reading "Created to be a Help Meet" By Debi Pearl. Specifically chapter eight I realized where I have fallen short. I acknowledge that I will never be perfect until Glory. But as Cindy Scapp often says. I sure want to try. I am so thankful that Joshua is patient and is slow to make decision. i am so thankful that he waits and listens and that he wants to hear. I could be married to a lost man. Which I was at one time. But praise the LORD he is now saved and following his Lord. I have really come to not see the term laymen as something that is not a good. Sure ladies would jump up to say "yeah my husband is a preacher or my husband is a missionary" But few jump up and say "My man is a Laymen in the Church and the Lord has called him to be a such and such."

As a layman's wife I want to encourage all of us to take a step back and make sure that we are really loving the men that God has given us the way we ought to. And make sure that you are his number one supporter. You should be his biggest Cheerleader on the sideline of life. Making sure that whether he is a Preacher, a Missionary a Military man, Plumber, Computer engineer, Doctor, or what ever he may be that we encourage them to be all that they can be for the LORD. For it has often been said that a wife can make or break her man. I hope that some day it will be said of me that I loved and supported Joshua and that he was a strong man of the Faith because of it.

After all we move so often to new places I love what Bro.Williams said, "You have to love the military who are saved after all they are government paid missionaries. What a good way to look at it. We are all married to a missionary of sort or another... =)

Thanks for letting me share,

Brittany