By Rodetta Cook

Rodetta Cook has been a pastor’s wife for over 40 years. She and her husband, Ron, have actively served the Lord together in ministry during the entire time and are co-founders of Care for Pastors. She understands the expectations, loneliness and how hard it is to find balance in ministry as a pastor’s wife. Rodetta also leads the pastor’s wives initiative at Care for Pastors called The Confidante and ministers to hundreds of wives each week. She strives to share blogs with other pastors’ wives that will help them in their ministry walk.

Posted by Rodetta Cook

Topics: Balance · For Pastors' Wives · Spiritual Walk

Heart Murmurs

Monday, April 23, 2018

I would like to share a blog today from another pastor’s wife that I believe will bless you today.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Proverbs 17:22

It all started back in college. I can still remember that weird flutter and my racing heart. My husband says it’s because college is where I first met him (he, he, he), but it was really so much more than that. I went to the doctor, wore a monitor, went to the doctor again, but they found nothing significant – only a small heart murmur. They said it was nothing to worry about.

Throughout my life this murmur has ebbed and flowed depending on what I was going through at that particular time in my life. As I thought about it today, the Lord brought to mind another, much more harmful, kind of heart murmur. The kind that is a significant problem and can alter the course of our lives. It’s the kind where our heart murmurs against the Lord. The kind that causes us to complain, to whine and to be discontented.

Scripture over and over again reminds us to rejoice, find contentment, not complain. But our complaining comes so fluently. We don’t even have to try. No matter how good our lives are, there is always something to complain about…the weather is too cold or too hot, I didn’t sleep well, I’m tired, I don’t like this or that, so and so doesn’t like me…and the list goes on.

Have you ever been around someone who is a complainer? How do you feel when you leave their presence?

I heard a pastor once talk about his cleaning lady. She always came into the office after hours to clean. He never saw her do it, but the next morning he knew that she had been there because of the beautiful fragrance she left behind.

What kind of fragrance are we leaving behind in people’s lives? (and, no, I’m not talking cologne here!)

Are our attitudes leaving more of a stench or are they a sweet smelling savor?

We see in Exodus that the people of Israel complained about their lack of food and water. Was this a legitimate complaint? Of course it was. Yet God was displeased with their murmuring. It made Him angry. He disciplined His chosen people because of their complaining hearts.

God still gets angry with our complaining. He has given to us eternal life, the Holy Spirit and heaven. He has blessed us with beautiful, warm homes, food (more than we need), clothing, family, brothers and sisters in Christ through our local churches. He blesses us with forgiveness, mercy and grace. There is so much more it would take an eternity to mention all of His many blessings. No wonder He gets angry, when He has given us so much and yet we find room to murmur.

Our goal in this life should be to glorify Him, to honor Him, to magnify Him. We can do all of these things by filling our mouths with His praises, by letting our tongues speak of His greatness. We MUST forget how to complain. We MUST find His goodness in every little thing He gives us.

So, pastor’s wife, let me ask you this…is your life full of joy and contentment, or do you have a heart murmur?

So, how is your attitude today? Do you need an adjustment? We are here to come alongside you in any way we can on your ministry journey.

Click here to read the original blog on LivingSacrificeblog.wordpress.com