Tomorrow is the final exam for my Wives of Equiping Ministers class that I have been taking here at the Seminary. Part of my course requirements for the semester was to have an hour long, uninterrupted conversation with my spouse. We were to focus on life and ministry dreams and goals and to work on casting the vision God has for our family.
Well, as Dusty and I are so good at we procrastinated untill the last minute. Meaning we were up as 6 this morning having this conversation. On one hand I hated getting up early just to “do homework”, but on the other hand I really liked that I waited to have this talk at the end of the semester for me so I could really put into practive much of what I have learned over the last several weeks.
What we came up with was this:
Dusty’s Life Mission:
~To reach families though men to teach them how to be Godly men and to lead thier families into a right relationship with Christ.
Elizabeth’s Life Mission
~Through hospitaltiy both inside and outside the home show families today the love of Christ while helping my husband to properly equip men and women to lead their families.
Dusty’s Passions:
~Men ages 18-30
~Amtgard
~Anything involving Superman
Elizabeth’s Passions
~Women 18-30
~Hospitality/Entertaining
~Being the wife and mother God created me to be to the fullest of my potential
Dusty’s Dreams
~ Do effective ministry with men in today’s society
~Create a passion and desire for ministry that will one day be passed down to our children and so on.
Elizabeth’s Dreams
~Educate myself to properly help Dusty with his call to ministry thorugh a Master’s of Christian Education with a concentration in Homemaking
~Show my children what it means to be a wife and mother after God’s own heart.
With in the next few weeks we plan to have further discussion on setting both family and ministry short and long term goals. I am hoping that with this we will be able to finally see more clearly the direction that God is taking us in at this moment.
While having this conversation, however, I came to a conclusion about myself. I realized that I am, be it consciously or subconsciously, not allowing myself to think about or even have my own hopes, passions, and dreams. I have come to some type of realization that I need to put aside me until Dusty is through with school and the kids are a bit older. I just tell myself that there will be time for me later on. But I have to stop and wonder if I’m doing what God wants me to be doing by having those thoughts and feelings?
Don’t get me worng. My first priority is to raise my kids and take care of the home while Dusty is either in class or at work. But is that all I’m here to do for this point in time? Do I have nothing more to offer or accomplish? Do I really have to wait 7+ years for Dusty to finish school before I can even think about starting mine?
These are things that Dusty and I plan on discussing and really praying about. I don’t want to look back someday and think that I could have really done more.
A Wise Woman in Progress 