My Wife and the Green Monster

Dear DW, 

I am a youth pastor, married to my amazing wife for 10 years now (just celebrated it!) and have 2 amazing kids.   

Over the years we have been married, there have been times that my wife has been jealous of the women I work with in the churches where I have served.  Recently, she is more apprehensive than ever about the women I communicate with at church, whether it is a high school girl, a mom, or the reason I am writing today, an intern.   

I am proud to announce that I have never been unfaithful, physically or mentally, with any woman.  I don’t know what motivates her jealously.  I do know that over the years I have had an issue with being on my phone too often at home or falling asleep early during our time together in the evenings.  I also know I need to speak her love language more clearly.   

I know that she believes me when I tell her that I have stayed faithful, but she still doubts that I will remain that way because I may be tempted in the future by a woman.  Luckily, that has never been a struggle for me.  I know my wife comes first and I will never betray that.

 So what do I do?  Any help would be great. 

Thanks, 

Steady Eddie

 

 

Dear Steady Eddie, 

Each time I read your letter, whistles and sirens go off in my head that won’t stop screaming “WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!”  I feel nervous just writing back to you because I see your family walking through some danger zones that could be ministry-enders, maybe even marriage-enders, if not addressed very soon.   

I can see that you have done some serious soul searching in trying to figure out why your wife might feel jealous.  A good starting place for you would be to aggressively address the issues that you already know are a problem in your marriage.  Make a concerted effort to turn off the phone when you are at home.  Set some solid boundaries between family time and ministry time.  Organize your ministry schedule so that your wife gets you when you are most alert and fresh, not when you are struggling to stay awake at night.  And, yes, if you know her love language, speak it loud and clear.  She is definitely having trouble hearing you right now. 

Steady Eddie, instead of wondering what is making her feel so insecure; ask what it would take for her to feel more comfortable when you are interacting with other women.  Let her determine the “rules” for your interactions with women.  She may be seeing some things that you are innocent about when she is around these ladies.  Whether founded or not, it’s always a wise thing to not dismiss the insecurities of your wife.  You may be doing everything right, but it isn’t in a way that she can see it or you wouldn’t be having this issue.  My guess is that you may also be having some communication problems.  I would urge you to get some professional counseling to help navigate your way through this shaky time. 

Finally, I want to caution you that no one is above temptation.  Your wife might be ultra sensitive, but she’s right in telling you that there’s always an opportunity for a fall.  Satan loves to surprise us by turning our strength into a weakness through sin.  Remember, Peter?  It only took hours for him to go from Jesus’ greatest defender to acting as if he didn’t know him.  Take heed of her warnings.  Guard your heart and always look for that way of escape from temptation (I Corinthians 10:13).  Your wife’s apprehensions may actually be providing you with an escape that you never knew you needed. 

You’re a good guy, Steady Eddie.  It’s obvious you love your wife and kids.  It’s time to do whatever it takes to stabilize your marriage.  Make this your priority right now.  You will never do any greater ministry than the one you do for your family. 

Love,

DW

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Young YP and the Roller Coaster

Dear DW-

 Just got hired as a full-time youth pastor 8 months ago…it’s my first ministry position and it’s out of state.  Also, just got married 2 months ago, so everything is still very new for my wife and me.  On top of getting married and moving to a different state, she is also finishing up her bachelor’s degree in secondary education – she is student teaching full-time. Oh and there’s this whole new thing of what it means to be a youth pastor’s wife.  

We absolutely love being married…it’s everything we dreamed it would be!  However, my wife is having a hard time adjusting to this new life.  We are in our early 20’s and like most churches there are very few people our age.  We spend most of our free time with teenagers or people who could be our parents! 

 Our biggest struggle right now is we feel alone.  We have no family within 5 hours of us and no real friends within 5 years of us.  I hate thinking my job as a youth pastor is hurting the emotional health of my wife.  I love teenagers and helping them grow in Christ, but I love my wife more – much more.  Any advice for us at this unique stage of our lives would be awesome…thanks so much! 

 YoungYP

 

Dear YoungYP,

 Yep, you have done it!  You have just invited the woman that you love more than anything on earth into the front seat of the biggest, baddest roller coaster anyone has ever experienced.  And not only do you have her in the front seat, but she’s not sure that the restraints are really locked in place.  Coming out of the chute and riding up the hill was kind of fun and exciting.  But at the precipice of the first plunge where you both can see the reality of how deep this coaster goes and how long, twisted, and harrowing your ride will be, you start to experience your first thoughts of regret.  Yikes!  Let me off!!  

I’ve been riding that rail for a while now, and let me say to you that it’s going to be ok.  Give yourselves some time to adjust.  You have experienced enough change in the last few months to overwhelm anybody.   Your sensitivity and concern about how your wife is adjusting to the ministry lifestyle is the first step to holding her hand and helping her feel secure during the ride.  But also recognize that you can’t secure her in the cart by yourself no matter how strong you are.  You can’t be your wife’s only source of support and friendship.  If you are going to survive this ride, you both have to develop a support system to help hold you in place when the ministry lifestyle turns you upside down and corkscrews you through the twists and turns of life.  I wish I could tell you that once you make it through the first plunge that everything is easy from then on, but, you know roller coasters, on the good ones the ride is usually exciting and unexpected from start to finish.  The ministry lifestyle is the same way.  Every stage of life will be filled with these kinds of loop de loops. 

 Below, I have a few questions for you to answer.  I hope that they will not only help you to find a support system no matter where you go in ministry, but also help you to figure out how to embrace your wife on the roller coaster ride of your new life together.  And if you both can figure out how to hold on tight at the beginning, you might just enjoy this exhilarating and terrifying, heart-stopping, spectacular ride that we call ministry.

 Love,

DW~

•  Do you have a group of friends from before marriage and moving that you can connect with via Skype on a regular basis?
• Do you have friends or mentors from your former church families that you can call up when you need to hear a familiar voice?
• Are there any other YP’s in your area that you could invite over for dinner? 
• Have you considered befriending a YP from another denomination?  (I bet some of them have wives that can relate to your situation!) 
• Is there a YP association in your town, neighboring city, or state?  (Have your wife check out www.leadingandlovingit.com for a virtual ministry spouse community.  Take her to your next YP conference, and let her connect with other spouses.  www.conference.youthministry.com has an excellent spouse tract that also continues to meet on FB –“Married to a Youth Pastor-Wives Connect Group”.  You can friend the FB group even if you haven’t attended the conference yet.)
• Is it worth one night a week of your busy schedule to join a Para-church Bible study where you can connect with others your age?
• Is there a hobby that you both can participate in that may connect you with other people your age? 
• Have you too quickly disregarded the support and influence of the older friends that you have in your church?
• Have you connected with the other staff members and their spouses?  Have you considered inviting them to do something social with you?
• Are you taking regular days off?  Are your days off truly “black-out” days from church work?
• Are you giving your wife your leftovers or is she getting the same man that she met before you took the ministry position?
• Is ministry occupying every aspect of your life or do you and your wife have very definable boundaries where ministry is not allowed in? i.e. day off, vacations, regular private time together
• Have you ever discussed with your wife what she wants her “role” to be in ministry?  Are you helping her to define God’s unique role and purpose in ministry or have you and/or the church been defining that role for her?