Bishop

Last Sunday my husband was sustained and set apart as the bishop of our ward. That means that he is now responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of our entire church congregation and all the people that live in our ward boundaries. It is a weighty responsibility and one that he accepted humbly. Our church is one of a lay ministry with no paid clergy so we all take turns filling the various responsibilities. I currently play the piano for the children during their singing time and I love it. Other times I have helped with the youth organization and the women's organization. Josh has taught the children before but mostly served in the men's organization and most recently as the previous bishop's executive secretary. This was not something he sought after, in fact we both secretly hoped it would never be asked of us, but when the call came, we both supported it and said yes.

A lot of people have been asking me how I feel about it and depending on the person I have had different answers. Overall, I am good with this change. I shared these feelings on Sunday but I have promised the Lord to do whatever was asked of me to build up his kingdom here on earth and to love and serve His children. This is a wonderful opportunity to fulfill those promises. I love my ward family and I also know that this experience will refine my husband (although he really is the best and it is hard to imagine how he'll get any better). I adore him and support him one hundred percent. I wonder how long it will take me to get used to people calling him Bishop though because that seriously just seems too grown up for us!

My greatest concerns are first, logistics. When he has meetings or visits to make or interviews or activities he needs to attend, that leaves just one of me to make sure my kids are making it to where they need to be. It also makes it harder for me to go out and limits my flexibility. Nothing I can't handle but it does make life a bit trickier, especially in the short term when we already had things planned before we knew about this change.

Second, I'm concerned about time together. Thankfully we already have the habit of spending Friday nights together, so we already have scheduled time that is mine and mine alone because I need it. Josh is my best friend and we need to communicate often and completely in order to maintain the good thing we have going. This week he was trying to surface after being thrown into the deep end of the pool, which meant he was serious, exhausted, preoccupied and hardly at home. I started wondering if the man I loved was gone for the next five years, but thankfully he got over that starting bump and returned to normal yesterday. We had a wonderful evening together and it was reassuring to me that he will be able to balance work, marriage, fatherhood and church service.

My last concern is that people won't be nice to him. It is rare but there have been times when people have been extremely critical or unkind or even threatened bishops. Josh is so kind and humble and patient with people, but I am not as much and if people treat him poorly, it will be difficult for me.

But, in the face of these concerns and challenges, I know that God lives and that this is the true and living church of Jesus Christ. I know that Josh was called to this responsibility through revelation from Christ and that he is to lead our ward at this time. I also trust that there will be great blessings poured out upon our family because God is generous and good and when we participate in His work, He strengthens us and makes us capable. It will be different but it will all be for our learning and benefit and happiness.  Jesus commanded us to be of good cheer and I couldn't be more grateful to know him and love him and to be a member of his church so let's get this new wife-of-a-bishop party started!