I suspect no one is capable of a more mature Christian faith than a minister’s spouse.

Wife or husband, it is the spouse of the practicing pastor who understands Christianity at a level revealed to few others.

Watching her husband, dressed up in all that ecclesiastical finery, bowing, chanting, preaching, acting like a real saint, how can she help but remember the recent times when he yelled at the kids, or kicked the dog and cursed the lawnmower?

Watching him display his piety, she knows the times when he has wept in defeat or agonized with his doubt.

There is a kind of deep spirituality that is given to the pastor’s spouse whose understanding of faith has a reality that few know.

There is a kind of ordinariness to the Christian life. Dreary times to balance the inspiring ones. Traces of dark clouds that impinge upon all that blue sky preaching.

The pastor’s spouse has a special wisdom that recognizes, in a way that few realize, that the work of God can be done in unspectacular and very ordinary ways.

Blessed is the preacher whose spouse is a constant reminder of just that.