Seeing ourselves through God's eyes

A young man I know has four years of Bible College education and has almost finished his first Master's degree - and within one more year will finish his second. For the last two years he has been in a difficult pastorate, dealing with conflict and learning the ropes - the hard way.

He has been married for 10 years and has worked through marriage conflict to create a stable home. For most of those 10 years he has juggled school, a full time job, being a good husband and child rearing - successfully. Over the last 11 years that I've known him, God has been preparing him for one thing - ministry. And he is great at it!

But as he stands at a life-changing crossroad to determine whether he will remain in ministry or move back into the blue collar nine-to-five world, he finds himself having to change the way he thinks about many things. At first, he wasn't looking at ministry career opportunities because he kept hearing the old "Timothy tapes" in his head.

"You're too young to be a pastor." (He's 30 with a wife and 4 kids!) "You don't have enough education or experience to be in ministry."(People actually told him that recently!!!) He had difficulty seeing how much God has invested in this him, through life experience and seminary training.

I'm happy to say that in this transition time, he is working hard to turn off those lying internal mantras. He is beginning to look for ministry-related opportunities and is beginning to see himself as a capable, God-called young man.

What can I say? I think he's great - he's my son-in-law. But even more than that, looking at him through the eyes of a veteran in ministry, I see such a wealth of potential in his life to affect the hearts of people. It would be a tragic loss to all if he settled for less than God intends for him.

So pray for my son-in-law that God will open up just the right door where his unique gifts and talents may be used to their fullest.

And pray for your pastor (and his wife) today - that God will bless and help them in whatever struggles they are going through. Thanks and God bless you today!