Holidays and Ministry

“O, there’s no place like home for the holidays.”

There’s a lot of truth to that song, and if you are a ministry wife away from home for the first time you know exactly what the song is talking about! My husband and I have lived “away from home” all of our married life. Early on, we were able to make it home for the major holidays (except Easter, of course—kind of hard to miss Easter Sunday when you work in the CHURCH. It’s kind of a big day!). As job descriptions changed and the more involved we became in other ministries in the church it became important for us to oversee some of the Christmas Eve programming. This conflicted in a bad way with my own extended family traditions since we had always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.

I remember the first Christmas Eve we were unable to go home. That evening as we were sitting around our little Christmas tree, my family phoned. They passed the phone around and wished us well and I could hear the singing of carols in the background. After the phone call, I broke down and sobbed. In the past, I was the one playing the piano while all the younger cousins sang their hearts out. I loved that part of our celebration and I was missing it!

Since that year, we’ve gone “home” for Christmas and Thanksgiving and we’ve stayed “home” for Christmas and Thanksgiving. We’ve been flexible in our own personal family so that we could be part of the extended family whenever possible. I personally think it is important to give my children every opportunity we can to spend with their grandparents and great-grandparents. But it is also important to allow them to observe in our actions and attitudes that ministry is one of our main priorities and it is okay if it conflicts with our personal family sometimes.

I consider myself very blessed that I’ve been close enough to home that I can spend some time each Christmas or Thanksgiving with my family even if it isn’t on the designated holi-“day”. But there are those who live much farther away from home who only see their extended families every few years or so (if they are so blessed). Whether you are near or far, this holiday season may be one of those times you’ll have to work on “giving thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18) whether you really feel like it or not. Something about giving thanks – it is sure to bring you peace, too. (Phil. 4:6-7)

If you’ve got some good advice about how to deal with being away from home for the holidays, ways you’ve coped, encouragement you’ve found in the Word, or traditions you’ve started, please post them as a comment here and encourage your sisters in ministry!