Day #14: GET READY! (31 Days to a Better Deacon Wife)
Day #14 – Get Ready
Your assignment today is to prepare ahead for some type of ministry in God’s name.
Spend some time to consider your own church and community. Think of ways you enjoy serving others. Consider how God has stirred your heart in days past about needs and opportunities to show His love to others. Now think of ways you can prepare ahead and be ready on a minute’s notice. A few examples:
- Prepare cookie dough and freeze it with a label, “ministry cookies.” Now when someone moves into your neighborhood, you can deliver steaming homemade cookies before the moving van drives away. You can take hot cookies to a homebound member or church member with a new baby. You’re ready.
- Make a huge pot of homemade soup. Serve some to your family, then freeze several containers, labeled “ministry soup.” When you learn that old Mr. James has the flu tomorrow, you’ll quickly deliver homemade soup to his door (and run!) You’re ready.
- If you’re a computer geek or scrapbooking diva, create pretty bookmarks with a Scripture and the words, “Praying for you! Diana Davis” (substitute your name). Make dozens of them. When you make a hospital visit, nursing home visit, bereaved visit, you’ve got a personal reminder to give them. You can give one to a teen headed off to college as a promise of your prayers. To a woman dealing with divorce or physical pain or personal problems. You’re ready.
- If your ministry area involves visiting homebound or members in nursing home, consider ways you can prepare ahead for great effectiveness. Keep their names and phonee contact information on your cell phone or a list in your car’s glovebox. If you have a few minutes and you’re nearby, you can easily call and stop by. Keep a list of their birthdays, and consider purchasing cards ahead of time. Go ahead and prepare them for the entire year and mail on the appropriate day. If you stop by on their birthday with a lighted cupcake, keep candles and matches in your car. If you like the idea of a portable tea party, pack up a picnic basket with two teacups, two saucers and pretty napkins. Then you simply fill a thermos with hot water, grab a couple of cookies and serve her tea. You’re ready.
- Perhaps you help with 25th or 50th wedding anniversary celebrations when they occur in marriages at your church. Gather gold or silver items, appropriate signs, reusable décor that may be used. Keep a card file of ideas used in the past, then loan them to families who are planning. You’re ready.
- Another example, as a pastor’s wife, I often was one of the first to arrive at members’ homes after a death occurred. I began to notice a pattern—many times, Janet (a deacon’s wife) had either already stopped by or came by while my husband and I were at the bereaved person’s home. She simply rang the doorbell, shoved a grocery sack into the arms of the person who answered the door, told them their church family was praying for them, said a one-sentence prayer asking God to comfort the family, and left. The grocery bag held these contents:
Paper plates, napkins, plastic forks, Paper towels, toilet paper, a note of sympathy and prayer
Often a bereaved family has not expected or prepared for masses of family and friends to arrive, so those paper products were appreciated. Gather those items, put them in paper bags on a top shelf in your garage, and you’re ready.
You get the idea. Get ready! Consider how God has called you to serve. Dream big about ways you can accomplish that task even better by planning ahead. When you’re prepared, you’ll be watching for ways to use those preparation. You’ll be surprised to find that you’ll be doing lots more ministry with less effort.
Assignment: Start getting ready today.