Many of you don’t have a clue what you are supposed to be doing as a pastor’s wife. You hang around people loaded with years of experience hoping to learn from them. Then you wait for them to broach deeper topics, but they never do. And while many pressing questions about ministry are burning in your mind and heart, you did not ask one. What held or is holding you back? You believe you are alone, the only pastor’s wife who doesn’t know what she was doing, and you can’t admit your insecurities.

I tell you this, dear pastor’s wife, so that you may know that I also am digging deeply into the challenges we all face at some point in our ministry. Those insecurities and uncertainties you have? You’re not the only one. Yet, my years of experience and context are not ultimately what I rely on as I offer you these pages. “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

I promise this as we share our week together through words and a common heart, my demeanor toward you is one in which I’m leaning forward, listening. I’m willing to hear and address the things you’re afraid to say and ask because you think you should be further along by now.

I’ll be brutally honest about what’s gone on in my heart (as a pastor), and my wife’s heart (as a pastor’s wife) hoping you’ll see yourself in me and, if needed, be pricked and poked by the Holy Spirit.

And then, I’ll remind you of the ancient truths: God is with you, He loves you, He is helping you, and He is worth pursuing and serving. There are challenges, yes, but there is also abundant joy and reward to be had living beside—and being—a minister of the gospel.