Our first post comes from Niki Roberts, the wife of Bob Roberts, author and pastor of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, which they started in 1985.
Working outside the Home
When stepping out to start a new church, often times it requires the wife to work outside the home in order to help out financially, especially until the church gets on her feet. When we began NorthWood, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach school part-time. It served us well on several levels. First, it did offer us extra income to run our household, but it did more than that for me. I had earned my degree in education and so it was fulfilling for me to use my degree and the ability God had given me.
So my life consisted of being a planter’s wife with all the responsibilities involved there, raising a family, and teaching school. Life could be quite hectic at times. I learned to not segment my life into categories but to see it as a whole. When viewed as a “whole” then our life is all spiritual. Our work becomes our ministry. God gives each of us abilities, interest and talents to be used for his glory. Great peace is experienced when we can look at our work as part of the ministry God has called us to do and not as a burden to be carried.
As Christian women, we are called to daily obedience and to live a life of transformation. When we are obedient and seek Him with our whole life he will continue to use us with our giftedness to serve him.
Question: For those of you who work outside the home, what have you found to be the advantages? Do you work outside of the home because you have to or because you want to? How did you deal with the added responsibility in addition to all your other responsibilities?
