Life In A Fishbowl
When I was very young, our parents bought us a goldfish, fish bowl, gravel for the bottom and a little ceramic house he could swim in and out of. I loved watching him swim. All day long he did the same thing. Round and round the bowl and in and out of the little house.
He never changed his habits because I was watching him. He did not really notice me, even though I would talk to him about life. It didn’t matter to him that I was watching him intently. He just did what he was supposed to do.
Life for a preachers’ family is kind of like a fish bowl. If we do anything out of the ordinary, if we are sick, if we take a trip, if our children behave poorly, everyone knows. It seems we can’t do anything without everyone knowing.
When I first married Bill, there was a lady who felt it was her duty as a good Christian to know everything we did. At first I was resentful. I tried acting and saying things that I thought she wanted to see or hear. I was overly concerned if my children were not perfect, hahaha, like any child can be perfect!
One day while talking to my Mother, I told all that was happening. She’d been a preacher’s wife for a long time, surely, she would know what to do. My Mother has always been the voice of reason and brilliance. She asked me why it mattered what this lady thought or did. I had to think about that for a bit. It didn’t matter what she thought or did. What mattered was if I was doing what God wanted me to do. Was I being the wife and mother Bill and my children needed? Was I being the friend God wanted me to be?
That was a lot of years ago. I still live in a fish bowl. But like the little goldfish, I do what I do because it’s the right thing to do and approved by God AND I don’t do the things God disapproves of.
In the words of Dory, “just keep swimming.” It’s what God wants you to do. Be the best you can be for God. Those who love you and appreciate you continue to love you and those that don’t, . . . well, they don’t matter. So don’t be disheartened by those who are looking for faults and failures. God’s got this!
Colossians 3:23: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 14:8: For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
With love from my heart to yours,
Bev