How will I know when the time is right to go back to ministry? A select few, who really don't know all the facts, have removed me from web sites, black balled me, etc., as I do speak on family values. Should I wait till after the wedding? Should I get several months of pastoral care? What do you think? I am just itching to get back to work helping women, not sure if this is the right time. As the song goes "How will I know?". Love, lw
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...... Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I never said anything. And then, they came for ME, and there was no one left to speak up. Martin Neimoller, German Pastor, WW2
I don't know your entire situation, but from what you've posted here, I would say to take some time to heal. You've been through a rough ordeal, and you and your children need time to learn how to be a family. If you're getting remarried, you'll need to establish your new husband as part of that family.
This is from the perspective of a child of divorce - my dad remarried very shortly after my parents' divorce was final, and didn't think it was important to include my brother and me as part of that family, because we didn't actually live with him. The first time we met our stepmother was the day they announced their engagement. We went to the wedding and then we all went back and lived our own separate lives, going on as though nothing had happened. From our perspective as kids, it was like my dad decided to "start over" with his new wife and HER kids, and that we were just the leftovers from his previous "mistake."
We've both resolved those issues now - and have as much of a relationship with our dad as we possibly can at this point - but it took a long time! For the sake of your children, take some time to work on your relationship with them. As someone said (I don't remember who!) regarding ministry, "If you gain the whole world, but lose your family, you've lost everything."
Thanks a bunch PM. Those are things, with the kids, I had not thought of. This whole starting over thing. That's really something to think about. LW
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...... Then they came for the Catholics, and I was a Protestant, so I never said anything. And then, they came for ME, and there was no one left to speak up. Martin Neimoller, German Pastor, WW2