<link href="9780802440402.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <link href="page-template.xpgt" rel="stylesheet" type="application/vnd.adobe-page-template+xml"/> <meta content="urn:uuid:81f4b65b-6367-4ac1-a3e7-b825a9264aa7" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body> <div class="booksection"> <h2 class="chapnum"><a id="ch14"/><a id="page_84"/><ins>CHAPTER 14</ins></h2> <h2 class="chaptitle"><a href="Contents.html#ch14a">HELP YOUR WIFE FIND HER “ME”</a></h2> <p><img alt="images" src="images/E.jpg"/>very woman has dreams that God has placed in her heart. For some seasons of her life, these dreams are placed on the shelf to focus on nurturing a new marriage or a new baby. But when God places a dream in a heart, it's more than chasing after a star, it's a divine calling. Sometimes the calling is to home school her children. Sometimes, like the Proverbs 31 woman, it's to operate a business out of her home. Other times it's to be involved with a ministry in her church. My calling was to serve with the Proverbs 31 Ministry.</p> <p class="indent">My first priorities remained God, my marriage, and my children, but there was a tug at my heart to serve in a ministry for women. Art and I worked on a realistic schedule for the amount of time I could serve. During the day I use the time my children are at school. If I have a meeting or a speaking engagement at night or on the weekend, he tries to be available to help with the kids. Through the years, I have continued to seek Art's counsel on how much time I can give to writing, speaking, and serving in the ministry. He has been supportive, and his willingness to allow me to pursue this calling has meant so much.</p> <p class="indent">I love being his wife. I love being a mommy. But I also love being me: a child of God whom He has called to make a difference in the lives of other women. I can't tell you how much joy it has brought to my heart to know Art believes in me. In <a id="page_85"/>preparation for writing this chapter, I asked Art why he's so willing to help me fulfill my calling. This is what he said:</p> <p class="indent">“At first I did it out of obligation. Then, as God grew me, I did it out of a desire to see God use you. I've seen how fulfilled you are in doing what God has called you to do, and I'm the direct benefactor of a happy wife. I'd challenge any husband who wants to be a great husband that if he's not pursuing a way of adding value to his wife by allowing her to pursue her God-given purpose, then he's missing the boat. You've got to help pave the road for her to pursue the dream God has placed in her heart.”</p> <p class="indent">One of my greatest treasures is a letter Art wrote to me a couple of years ago while we were attending a Family Life Conference:</p> <blockquote> <p class="blockquote1">Dear Lysa,</p> <p class="blockquote1">From the first day I met you, I can remember how beautiful I thought you were. Your ability to smile at even my bad jokes made me feel special and needed. I love the way you live each day to dream and seek the road ahead with passion. I also love your genuine interest in me and what I do each day. These are the qualities that drew me to you.</p> <p class="blockquote1">After we married and worked through the first year, I was amazed at your willingness to take the lemons of our life and make lemonade. You allowed God to make you so transparent to others and it's simply incredible. Look how He's used your lemons! Proverbs 31 Ministry has been the <a id="page_86"/>incubator for a God-sized movement in you. What a joy it is to watch this as your husband. Love, Art</p> </blockquote> <p class="indent">It's been a process. It's amazing that God would call me to serve in a ministry to encourage other women, especially with a ministry called Proverbs 31. If you would have read that Scripture and looked at my life all those years ago, I was nothing like her. I hardly knew how to clean a home much less run it efficiently. I'm not a seamstress, I gave my husband few reasons to sing my praises, and my children were not old enough to rise up much less call me blessed. (See Proverbs 31:10–31 if you're not familiar with this amazing woman.)</p> <p class="indent">But God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called. God used Art's encouragement and patience to help me find the “me” in my life. This “me” loves being a wife, loves being a mommy, loves running an efficient home, and feels fulfilled in serving God through all these things—and through working with the Proverbs 31 Ministry.</p> <p class="indent">What dreams has God placed on your wife's heart?</p> <p class="normal"><b>H<small>OME</small> I<small>MPROVEMENT</small></b><i>—Ask your wife what dreams God has placed on her heart. Record her response here.</i></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><a id="page_87"/><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="center"><img alt="images" src="images/line.jpg"/><br/><br/></p> <p class="normal"><i>If she has a hard time answering this question, a recommended resource for her to read is a book I wrote to help women with this question:</i> Living Life on Purpose: Discovering God's Best for Your Life <i>(Moody Publishers).</i></p> <p><img alt="images" src="images/Tshade.jpg"/> <b>T<small>HOUGHT FOR THE</small> D<small>AY</small></b>—<i>He needs to know who I am and what makes me tick. Know my gifts and heart's desires in order to encourage me to be all that God created me to be so I'll have a sense of fulfillment and worth. Know what brings me joy and frustration.—L<small>AURA</small> [S<small>T</small>. L<small>OUIS</small>]</i></p> </div> </body> </html>