let your light shine

I'm finally being commissioned as a Recognised Lay Minister in Pastoral Care today....eeek!!

I've been doing my duties informally for a while now, as I missed the original commissioning due to severe morning sickness - this was around 16 months ago, so yes, I've been a little busy having a baby since then and have only recently officially returned from maternity leave. But that's the thing about pastoral care - it doesn't have an off button, and if I go a day without an encounter or two, that's rare.

The service itself (which is taking place after we attend Junior Church followed by Holy Communion, so my kids are already going to want to be at home *sigh*) is fairly short but very serious and a little daunting. And there will be laying on of hands, obviously.

Which has 1st and 2ndSister worried, obviously, because

What if someone accidentally touches your BOOBS, Mummy?!!

They almost have me worried, too. Scary stuff!

In a way, however, I feel I'm already up to the task that I'm being commissioned for. As well as my three years of ministry training, hospital placement and recent hospital training with the chaplains - naturally accompanied by occasional "do you REALLY want me to do this, GOD?" moments - God's been sending me a few messages lately which have basically given me a huge kick in the rear end to get out and just do.

The most recent of which occurred yesterday at Morning Prayer, which at our church on a Saturday is half an hour of corporate yet silent prayer in the early morning, bookended by short prayers by our Priest who perhaps did not even know she was picking them out specifically for me, but did so anyway :-) It was like the week when every Bible I opened told me to let my lamp shine for the world and I realised the beginning of my calling. She actually recited those verses from Matthew yesterday before we said the Grace together. And during the quiet prayer time, I felt that it wasn't just God tasking me to go and do His work with the sick, the struggling and the needy - it was me empting my self out and letting Jesus take over.

Might I add, this still didn't stop me from being a mardy, pre-menstrual wife and mother on our annual visit to Hodsock Priory see thousands of snowdrops and watch the Sisters play with sticks and logs. But I'm hoping the Holy Spirit's working on that, too.

Copyright - Hodsock Priory.