Saturday night in a pastor's home...

Dear Daughters,

It's Saturday night in the pastor's home. Time to get all those last minute chores for Sunday tidied up. All the clothes are pressed, the last load of laundry is washed, folded and put away and the baskets are empty, (well, almost!) and the treats for mom's Sunday School class are sitting on the breakfast bar, (tomorrow is yummy fall cupcakes with an orange cream cheese topping). Usually dinner is precooked and in the refrigerator but tomorrow's schedule is a little different, and now mom is going to spend just a little time for herself before bedtime.
Saturday's can be a pressure cooker day for the pastor's family. Satan knows that and tries his best to get us at odds with one another. After years in the ministry you learn not to let him have his way by using you as a pawn in his wicked plans. There are days I'm right in the middle of falling into his trap and it hits me what's going on. Those are the days I have to march in and apologize for allowing myself to yield to the flesh and hinder the Holy Spirit's work in our lives and ministry.
My husband preached a message not too long ago on how to pray for your pastor. May I encourage you to bow your head and pray for your pastor right now. The man of God carries a heavy burden if he's doing what he's called to do. Weekends are when his mind is a whirl of all that he hopes to accomplish on Sunday, his message being just what the Lord wants, and his mind is on his church members and how they are doing. He's hoping for visitors and fruit from his visits during the week. He's praying everyone will be in their places on Sunday to sit at the spiritual dinner table.
Here's the outline to "How to Pray For Your Pastor". Mine's written in the back of my Bible so I can hold the precious man of God I live with up to the Lord faithfully and as I should.

I. Pray for his Protection (II Thess. 3:2)
A. From unreasonable men.
B. From wicked men (I Tim. 1:18-20, II tim. 2:15-18, II Tim. 4:14,15, II Tim. 3: 1-9)
II. Pray for his Personal Walk (Heb. 13:8)
A. That he always does the right thing.
B. That his provisions are met. Pray that his every need is met. (spiritual, emotional, and
physical needs)
III. Pray for him to Have a Profitable Ministry (Heb. 13:17,18)
A. A profitable ministry concerning his flock
1. people that follow
2. people that understand pastoral leadership
B. A profitable ministry concerning getting the gospel out, (Col. 4:3,4, Acts 14:27) and
that he will give the word in power. (Col. 3:4, Eph. 5:18,19)
C. A profitable ministry with the word of God having free course. (II Thess. 3:1)

Because I've spent most of my life in a pastor's home I know the burdens that they carry. When my husband took his first pastorate I remember how overwhelming the responsibility seemed to him at the time. He took his job very, very seriously before the Lord.
Today in a time when many churches are lowering the bar to try to draw in new members or keep those that don't want qualifications for service put on them it takes a man with a firm determination to please His Saviour above all else to take the pressures of leadership. How thankful I am for a husband I can look up too because his first priority is to please His
Saviour above all else.
If you have such a pastor tell him so. I've read in several places that this month is supposed to be the month you show your appreciation to your pastor. Do it! Be faithful, be grateful, and express your thanks to your pastor for being there for you.
Get to bed dear ones so your fresh on the Lord's day!

Love,

Mom

A perfect fall day..

Dear Daughters,

I wish you were here. Today was one of those perfect fall days with rain pattering against the kitchen window while I baked Oatmeal Sandwich cookies. In between loading cookie sheets or spreading filling on the cooled cookies I sipped coffee and listened to Christian radio.
The kitchen was warm and smelled of brown sugar and cinnamon. I love the lighting in the house on a rainy day--all my small lamps seem to make it so cozy in the house. A day when you want to kiss your kids every time they walk by you. :)
Years ago I read a book and the lady pointed out that you can be a woman who always has to have something purchased to make you happy or you can learn to live within your means and find joy in the free things. That struck home since I didn't have anything material but I did have a husband and four little ones that were a great source of joy for me. I began to notice all the things the Lord has given us to enjoy.
I noticed my coffee pot perking cheerfully near the window with the steam being drawn out of the open window in the mornings. I noticed how precious little ones playing in the yard are, and how wonderful clean clothes on a laundry line look. I realized what joy bathing a baby brought me, and how good a clean house makes you feel. I noticed how wonderful baked goods smell on a cool fall day, and the look on my husband's face when he came in the house to the smell of his supper and a counter with goodies waiting. All for free-gifts from the Lord.
I also began to notice what made me unhappy with my life. If I spent too much time looking in magazines, or going shopping, or being around friends that hadn't found how to live within their means, or if I watched the unreal world of television too much then a spirit of ungratefulness would begin to find its way into my heart and life.
We lived on a very small income at that time and my house and its belongings were certainly nothing to brag about. I remember praying to the Lord that people would sense His presence in my home and that they would feel welcome and that my home's atmosphere would be what they noticed not my possessions.
People always did seem to enjoy our home and more than once people I didn't even know that well would comment on the sweet spirit in our home. People would comment on how comfortable they felt or how peaceful it was. My table never lacked for people stopping by for a cup of coffee or a meal.
Dear daughter, don't focus on what you have but instead on the spirit and atmosphere you desire in your home. We can get so caught up with material things we forget that the home is simply a tool that's been put in our house to shelter what really matters-our family.
Use that kitchen table for sewing little garments, for making costumes for your frontiersmen, princesses, and even for George Washington himself. Use it for playing games with your children while they are still at your table. Use it for wonderful mealtimes spent laughing and telling stories. Use it for tea parties, birthday parties and for coffee with friends and family.
Ask yourself what memories you want your children to have and pour your life into that. Ask yourself what memories you want to leave with your beloved husband. What do you want him to remember about stepping in the door? The warm smell of coffee and his favorite foods with a smiling face coming to greet him? Or a scowl and complaints and him wondering if he's getting a hot meal tonight?
Do you want your children to remember you in the kitchen with your apron on making cookies or slouched on the couch watching tv?
Pour your heart and life into what really matters. Get your Bible out and pick a color just for the passages that have to do with the woman. Mark them and make a note of what she's doing and where she is. Find out why things went wrong and why things went right for the woman.
Find out why you were made and where God says your place is. Memorize Proverbs 31 and make her your role model. I assure you it's a lifetime project!
This week begin to notice those things that are yours for free--your husband's smile, your baby's eyes full of love for you, a child that hugs you, the sunshine coming through your kitchen window in the afternoon, a quick nap on a rainy day--just those little love touches from your Saviour that cost you nothing.

Well, till next time your on my heart,

Mom

Getting to know one another...

Where do you start in getting to know people? I like to hear about their lives and connect with people in our common interests, goals and loves.

So, a little about me. My name is Tami. My given name is Tamara and my dad chose that name because he'd met a family who had named their daughter Tamara and he loved the name. As I was growing up he would remind me that my name meant "palmtree" and that a palm tree was tough on the outside and tender on the inside. He also said a palmtree could take heavy storms and bend with them. That has always made me love my name.

I am the daughter of a pastor and missionary and the wife of a pastor. My husband is a bus kid who came to church, got saved and surrendered his life to ministry as a young man.

I trusted Christ as my Saviour as a young girl standing in the pew next to my dad when a visiting preacher was preaching. The preacher preached on Calvary and it painted a picture of the cross in my mind as he preached. I wanted to be saved but was frightened about going to the altar, so I took my dad's hand, bowed my head and asked the Lord to come into my heart and save me. I remember being so excited about it and after being saved kneeling by the couch with my little friend Mark explaining to him how to be saved. I also remember feeling guilt for doing wrong after I was saved.

As a young woman I became serious about studying my Bible and finding out what my role in life was. The Lord graciously taught me so many things. With four small children at my feet I grew in the Lord and found my place was in my home ministering to my husband and children and being an ambassador for the Lord whoever I was with and wherever I was. He taught me priorities in my life and He taught me how to find joy in my role as His child, a wife, mother, homemaker and church member.

When my husband went into ministry (over 25 years ago now!) the Lord taught me how to minister to my husband in his new role. This was an area of my life that took the Lord some time! My personality and training needed some spiritual work and I had to learn lessons that ministry involves spiritual warfare and sometimes soldiers get wounded.

We are independent Bible-believing Baptists and we live our live with the word of God as our sole authority.

God has been so good to us. We have four biological children and three children that are adopted. We have 14 grandchildren! I truly believe children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord.

My husband and I have been married for almost 35 years. We have grown together in so many ways. I can only give the Lord the credit for all He has taught us as a couple. Our marriage grows sweeter every year we live.

I love my role as wife, mother, grandmother, homemaker, church member, and friend to the many friends the Lord has given me. I love cooking, baking, sewing, writing, and many other things.

Why a blog? When I was a young woman my only "aged woman" lived hundreds of miles from me. That was my mother. I didn't have the money to call her (many times didn't even have a phone) so our communication was mostly by letter. I longed for an aged woman to teach me more as I studied my Bible on the role of the woman. I devoured every book I could find on the subjects but they were usually from sources outside of the independent Baptist circle. More and more women were leaving their homes to go to work in the Christian schools, the secular world, and less and less women saw the home as the realm for ministry. As my children were growing I knew with more and more certainty that we were the ones that God ordained to teach and train our children but again that wasn't what was going on around me. I remember feeling that the woman who had dedicated her life to obeying the word of God as a woman and then teaching others to do the same as she became an older woman was simply missing in the local church.

I determined way back then that when I became an aged woman I was going to obey Titus 2 and teach the younger women what I had learned. Well, here I am and I can't believe it happened so quickly! I always thought about writing a book, but the computer has opened a whole new avenue of teaching. After prayer I decided to have a blog, writing in it only when I have my other duties properly completed.

My husband has a policy that if people will sit under the word of God as they should (i.e. come to church faithfully) and obey what they hear they will not require counseling. I agree. Time is a precious commodity and the Holy Spirit is a personal Holy Spirit. If you desire to know the truth and you seek for it--it will be found.

As you read my writing please don't become a follower of me--get in your Bible, seek His face, walking in obedience as He is in the light for you. Anywhere you are knowingly neglecting to obey the Lord--begin obeying Him.

I believe that each believer is a personalized as a fingerprint. God works with you where you are. We are to live life by His principals and the details will fall into place. Don't get caught up in the details--get caught up in living life by His Guidebook with complete and cheerful obedience.

As we become acquainted I trust that there are new "daughters" added to my life and that I will see them walk in obedience, bringing glory to His name.

In Him,

Tami