Me, The Cursing Preacher, And The Poor Wife
My wife reminded me of this little story last night. It is a story of how hard it is to be a preacher’s wife in the church. It is also a story of love for a man. When I first started doing ministry, a rumor started to spread concerning me. It was that I cursed at a minor league baseball game. What is funny is that I could care less about a baseball game, maybe a hockey game, or football game, there could be the temptation to curse, but baseball would never cause me to even care, remotely. But to the story, so this rumor started to go through the church, and some ladies approached Charity, my wife with their concerns about her cursing preacher husband. She reminded me last night that she thought this was so wrong, because as she stated “I have never heard you curse in your life.” If there was someone that would hear me say a bad word, it would be my wife. You are who you are home. So when this rumor approached her, she knew it to be false. But it really upset her, and as she said last night, I can say what I want to you, but you better not say bad stuff about my husband. Wives feel this way. Leave my husband a lone. You do not know him, or his heart, and you are attacking him to me. It is sad that church members try to turn wives against husbands, or have wives side with them against their husbands. Maybe these concerned Christians who were sinning by breaking Matthew 18:15 thought that she could talk to her cursing husband and stop him from sinning, but there is no verse on this, just Matthew 18:15, that says you go and talk. Do not approach the husband through the wife. This is so painful for our wives. What is interesting is that no one ever approached me on this rumor, it was just stated as fact, and it had to be dealt with. There was a big campaign that I was unfit for youth ministry because I was a curser. No one started a campaign that these rumor gossips were unfit Christians. It was taken as fact, I was sinful and had to go. Which is find, yes, yes, it happens, but it crosses the line to attack the husband through the wife.
Related posts:
- Operation Wife Rescue
- Dealing With The Poor
- Crying Poor
- The Role of the Preacher in Decline
- Polarizing Ministers–Avoiding Preacher Fights
About The Author
Of course nothing happened, I had a good ministry there, and all ended well. Just like most stuff at church, it comes and goes, and no one remembers, besides the people hurt by the words it most scarred.
I’m glad you decided to reflect on ministry wives in this post–they bear such heavy burdens and yet are so infrequently appreciated for the ministry they do for their husbands.What a blessing their love is!
Thanks for posting about our wives. They are precious. They have feelings. They endure much. God bless you and your precious family.
Matthew when I saw the picture on this post I thought “this a picture of Trent Richardson “RTR-Run Trent Run” about to run completely over the honey badger:)