ministry.

I cannot nail down one thing to blog about.  My life is consumed by my kiddos and I often forget those thoughts of, "Oh! That'd be a great thing to write about!"  Am I the only one?  I'm much better at a bunch of random thoughts, expressed in a few sentences each.  Today's thoughts are some that I have had for a while now.  So here I go...


Most of my {short} adult life I have believed that ministry was doing something within the church, and by within the church, I mean within the building.  Examples: being a youth sponsor, helping in the nursery, singing on the praise team, helping to set up/tear down, you get the idea.  And while those are all ministries, and good ones, they are not the end all.  Since leaving the title of youth pastor's wife behind, I have struggled with feeling like I am not doing something to serve God.  I was not apart of something that had a title; I was not on a 'team'; I was not on a committee.  I guess I considered serving God was being busy within the church. 


Now do not misunderstand me, people are needed to serve within the church, give of their time, and share the talents/gifts God has blessed them with.  {this is all harder to put into words than I thought it would be}.  And being apart of ministry teams within the church is by no means a bad thing.  What I am getting at is this: God has been showing me that my family is my ministry.  Whoa...that thought makes me stop in my tracks.  How had I been treating my family in the past?  It was more like a job, a to-do list, a requirement, but a ministry?  That was a new thought to me.  


Some of you may not be able to relate to my eye opening experience because you are already doing this.  But this was, and is, a new way of thinking for me.  It has changed the way I view each hour, day, week.  It has cause me to check my thoughts and actions and line them up with a more Christ-centered attitude.  As I am typing this and thinking it through it seems like common sense.  The Bible does say to "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) and of course that should apply to my family.  


Is anyone following me here?  


To be continued...