No preacher’s wife should ever be ashamed of what she is wearing for she should always be dressed in modest apparel. Many preacher’s wives like to wear beautiful dresses, skirts or even pants to worship services. There are times that no matter how descent your skirt may be and how modest you may think you are, others may unfortunately see it a different way. Like the time I probably should have worn pants one particular evening of Bible study but I decided to wear a lovely, just below the knee, pleated khaki skirt and blouse. While talking with one of our members I gradually leaned up next to the side of a pew beginning at the arm rest. Continuing to meander along the pew as I talked, I then walked a little further away. I finally felt a tug on my skirt. Reaching back I realized my skirt was being lifted higher and higher.
A preacher’s wife should be one of grace and beauty. Waving to the crowd while wearing my own crown and beautiful evening gown I felt like Lady Liberty standing tall and proud. However ladylike you can be on a special occasion may also be true to the opposite extreme as well. This can be a bit of a shocker for any guys wishing to date you but if he’s persistent nothing will scare him away. Not even if you can break the sound barrier with one belch that most football players would be envious of or the “bonding” you and your cousin constantly did. There is a fine line between being a country girl who can spit her gum across her boyfriend, out his window into on coming traffic making him look guilty and a southern bell who is very much a lady indeed but one who can still whoop a feller when he needs it. Whether you’re a southern bell or a redneck barefoot country girl, when you become a preachers wife it means being able to grow up so you can stand tall and proud with the grace and beauty for such a great and wonderful role. More importantly so your husband has less sermon material featuring you.
In the world that we live in today it is truly a hard task in being an innocent minded person. When you become a preachers’ wife you may start your life with this wonderful characteristic but you may see it disappear as your husband moves you from place to place. On our first big move I was taking in all the sites of the area, the neon on the bridge and the pretty ferry boats below, “Oh Sweetie. No, no.” my husband says with a snicker, “Those are Casinos!” You’d think after a few years of traveling and moving I’d learn but during a visit to Washington D.C. one winter day, I announced rather loudly how I thought I saw a homeless person but laughed and asked why in the world was a piece of rolled up carpet doing in the middle of the park. The abundance of blood to the face kept me warm for much of the day, after I was quickly told that it WAS a homeless guy and he was wrapped up in the carpet trying to stay warm. If only I would’ve used a little sense with my innocence.
A preachers’ wife must always portray herself as an intelligent one worthy of her husbands hire for a preaching position by an area congregation. This topic of concern can be notably dealt with by simply not telling the stories I have posted here until after he’s hired. You also may not look too intelligent if your husband tells the story of when he asked you while driving down the road one rainy evening, “a penny for your thoughts” and you, mesmerized by the sound of the wipers with no other thoughts in mind, reply with only one finger waving back and forth say to him, “Shoomp-shoomp! Shoomp-shoomp!” Even without the wiper story, try as I may to sound intelligent, being from Alabama with a thick southern drawl tends to make these folks up north take a second gander at you and wonder if they stepped into a rerun of Hee Haw. However, not all appearances of intelligence will go out the window because of an acute culture shocked reaction from people’s first impression of you. Unless, it’s one of those times when you prove it by not reading the “DO NOT USE” sign on the coke dispenser which coats you in a spray of stickiness and a heap of embarrassment during an after Gospel Meeting gathering at McDonald’s.
Every preachers’ wife finds herself visiting the sick with or without her husband as often as possible. As the old saying goes, laughter is the best medicine and a preachers’ wife would do well in keeping her wit about her. Hospital’s can be a lonely and frightening place when your sick and hurting and a friendly face can help in their time of need. I spent a lot of time in hospital’s when I was an Emergency Medical Technician and now that I’m a preacher’s wife probably more so. Most EMT’s tend to have a morbid sense of humor in order to deal with the stress of the job. I was one of them. Like the time I laughed when my mother was telling me about a man who got his head chopped off when he looked down the elevator shaft he was working on. Morbid jokes aside, well sort of, people enjoy being cheered up when most of their time in the hospital is spent in worry of their situation. Having been on the other side as a patient in the hospital, I know how frustrating dealing with pain can be. So in an effort to convey my own thoughts of dealing with pain where I’ve felt it would be easier to just cut it off, I decided to state this joking analogy to a member’s son not knowing his pain was of a “private” nature.
