Parenting and Religion

With so many options for ministry and reaching out to others with the Gospel; helping others with their physical needs, such as food and clothing, giving time to help at a nursing home, doing jail ministry, being a preacher of the Gospel in a church, having a ministry for teens and children that reaches out to the community, offering special services you are gifted in to help others in any way, and always ministering to their needs in a way that displays the love of God to them- that is effective ministry.
So often we in the Christian community think of ministry as one of two choices- either being a Pastor, or being a Missionary in a foreign land.
We need to change the focus of our idea of ministry, and look at the Word of God and the needs of the world around us.
It never really dawned on me that this blog may be a type of ministry to some. As a matter of fact, everything I do as a Christian, and everything you do as a Christian, is a form of ministry whether we intend it to be or not. As ambassadors of the Lord, we are to be His ministers here, where ever here is for us. For me it is here in the Mohawk Valley in NY state. Everyone I come in contact with is supposed to be shown and example of God’s love for them.
Everyone I come in contact with, even on my worst day, will be affected by me in some way. It has become so clear to me that when we represent Christ, we need to always be ready for ministering to someone, and helping them see Him in us. Sometimes, when we are not having a good day so to speak, we may misrepresent Him. His grace can cover our mistakes, and we can have opportunity to make up for it; but our goal should be to let Him work in us and work through us to touch anyone and everyone we come in contact with.
I have been guilty of it, and I’m sure most Christians have, of being selfcentered and forgetting at times that I am His ambassador, carrying His message with me, and that those whose lives I touch, even for a brief moment, may be touched in an eternal sense by how I treat them, how I act, what I say and what I do. Even the smallest thing may be what helps open their eyes to the truth- that God loves them, He made a way for them, and He wants them to call Him “Savior, Lord, and Father”.
That gives a whole new perspective to today, making me more aware that simply being a Christian is being a minister- whether we think we are called to ministry or not. That is what we are- ministers.