Book Review: The Pastor's Wife

I just finished reading the novel, "The Pastor's Wife" on my Kindle.  It's about a young woman and man who marry and move to a small town where he is to be a pastor.  He gets so wrapped up in the church that he never has time for his wife.  She feels the pressure to "perform" in certain ways so the congregation doesn't get wrong ideas. She also feels that she is expected to be involved in and even run a lot of ministries within the church related to women and children.

Even the parsonage doesn't really feel like her own home because the people from the congregation donated all the furnishings and decorations.  Her husband won't let her replace any of it because someone might get their feelings hurt.

One day she becomes ill and her husband isn't there for her when she needs him most.  She ultimately leaves him and moves back to CA to be with her parents.  He is hurt and doesn't understand what happened.

The rest of the story tells how they were brought back together and by a woman's last will and testament, but does it work to mend their relationship?  You'll have to read the story to find out.!

Having grown up in a pastor's home, I can easily see how a pastor can become so tied up in his work that his wife and children take a back seat to everything else.  Thankfully that wasn't the case with my situation. At least it didn't feel that way.  I also can see how a pastor's wife can feel pressured to be involved in all sorts of ministries of the church simply because she is the pastor's wife.  As a pastor's kid, I felt that pressure, so I know my mother had to feel it too.  I also know the pressure of having to be and act certain ways so the congregation doesn't get wrong ideas.

I think the author portrayed the pressures of the pastor and his wife very accurately.  Sadly, some pastor's wives have left their husbands either because they simply couldn't hack the pressure and/or their husband had no time to spend with them so they found a man who did.

This book points up the need for us to be in prayer for our pastors, their wives and children.  We need to pray that they will be able to balance the demands of the church with the demands of home and family and that they will have the courage to set boundaries between the two if necessary to keep their marriages and families in tact.