This is why I can’t remember your name…..

On about 1000 occasions, I have forgotten someone’s name. It never fails. It can happen in small groups or big groups. It can happen at church or school or in the grocery store. It can happen if I have known you for five weeks or five years. I just go blank. It always leaves me feeling lousy. Each person is precious and has a story that truly matters. I never want someone to think that I don’t care enough to remember. I have even gone to measures to take pictures of a few people so I could refer back and remember. I stopped because I thought if I kept that up, someone would assume I had become a full time photographer!The reality is that my role as a pastor’s wife is an incredible blessing. I am privileged to walk alongside women and families during many highs and lows of life. Just this week, my heart was occupied with helping someone who recently lost a loved one, someone who lost her virginity outside of marriage, someone who was frustrated with a staff member, someone struggling with mental illness, someone battling to keep her marriage in tact, and someone grieving the end of her marriage. Sometimes my heart is so heavy realizing the amount of pain that is being experienced by just those I know. I can’t imagine how our Lord is able to comfort all of us living in this broken, sinful world. Weaved in between each prayer and appointment, I am trying to love my husband, care for my children, lead Bible studies, and develop other leaders to love well on the women in their span of care.I am grateful the Lord and His work can go on just fine without me. It can also go on just fine even when I drop a ball or drop a name. While I may forget a name, God does not. While I may disappoint, He never will. In every step of our journey all of us are bound to disappoint people. The question is not, “Will I disappoint?”  The question is only,  “When will I disappoint?” If you know a pastor’s wife who has removed herself from the flow of activity, do not stand in judgment. Pray for her. Reach out to her. Even remind her of your name. The position is one that is a prime target for the enemy to attack with vicious lies about herself, God, and His people.So when any of us disappoint others, how do we keep from beating ourselves up?Our hope is in the fact that between our blunders we are pointing people to the only One who will never let us down. When you blow it, the bigger question is who have you been pointing people to all along: you or Him? The grace we need from the Lord on the smallest blunders and the biggest sins is exactly what the people in our circle need, too.