Today, RonnieFloyd.com welcomes guest writer Jeana Floyd. Jeana is the wife of Dr. Ronnie Floyd, mother, grandmother, author and 27-year breast cancer survivor.

The year was 1990. It was the month of March, and I had been diagnosed with breast cancer in January. Ronnie and I were attending a conference for pastors and wives, and I had arrived with a broken heart. I knew some of the women by name who were attending, but there was no one in the room I felt like I knew well.

A Special Friendship Emerged

But something happened during the conference that began a friendship that has now been going on for 27 years. During the final session for the women only, we were asked to draw the name of another pastor's wife out of a basket and commit to pray for her for the next year. To be quite honest, I don't even remember whose name I drew. I was there in body, but not so much in mind and emotion. But the person who drew my name really did commit to pray for me and kept my name on her refrigerator for the next year.

Don't underestimate the value of attending meetings with your husband where you have the opportunity to make and develop relationships with other ministry wives beyond your local staff and church. The friendship that grew from that experience is of great value to me.

Friendship Is Sharing Life Together

That friendship that started 27 years ago has been a constant encouragement to my life. We have shared life together. We've laughed and cried, vented and roared. We've experienced the joy of the birth of 13 grandchildren between us. We've walked through seasons of concern with aging parents and prayer needs for our children and grandchildren. She's heard me in days of personal desperation and exhilaration over seeing God move in my life and the life of our church. Very few people understand the daily path of my life as a wife, minister's wife, mother and grandmother.

Develop A Friendship With Another Minister's Wife

 As I've walked the journey of being a minister's wife, I have come to appreciate and understand the value of friendship among our sisterhood of ministers' wives. No one understands our life like we do. We can honor and validate our joys and struggles like no one else.

Frances J. Roberts writes in Come Away My Beloved, "Surely He has given you ministering angels, who may sometimes come to you in the form of your friends. Accept their help as from God, and your blessings will be doubled. You may also, in turn, be used in similar manner to bless others." This is certainly true for ministers' wives. I've often needed ministering angels in my life, and many times, that encouragement has come from another ministry wife.

Invest in Other Ministers' Wives

 For 30 years, I've led a monthly luncheon (during the school year) with the purpose of building relationships among our staff wives. We meet for fellowship and encouragement. Through this luncheon, we are able to connect our wives who all live very busy lives.

We've discussed everything from how to make chicken pot pies, to loving our husbands, to how to minister to our congregants in critical times. We are not all best friends, but this luncheon serves to build a camaraderie and spirit of unity among us. It reminds us we are all on the same team—attempting to carry out the same purpose of sharing the Good News, making disciples and walking beside our husbands in ministry. We even cross over generations and ethnicities.

As a minister's wife for 40 years, I've found myself needing friends who will make me laugh, cry with me, sympathize with me, understand my life, create inside ministry jokes with me, and most importantly, I need relationships that point me to Jesus and His Word.

Every Minister's Wife Needs a Susie Hawkins in Their Life

 This is why Susie Hawkins has been a faithful and trusted friend of mine for 27 years. She is the wife of a God-called minister, Dr. O.S. Hawkins, President of Guidestone Financial Resources, located in Dallas, Texas.

Become a Susie Hawkins to Another Minister's Wife

 Allow me to challenge you to be that friend to another minister's wife. Maybe she's on your staff team. Maybe she lives in another town, city, or state. Find time to chat with her, email or text her, share your life with her—hat same life you are living—the life of a minister's wife.

I'm grateful for the sweet friendship that began in a room full of other ministers' wives whom I did not know very well. I'm grateful God sent Susie Hawkins to be my friend in a very hard season in my life. It was a friendship I didn't even know I was lacking, yet I'm grateful that we got past that very hard time, developed our friendship from afar and have enjoyed the happiness and sorrows of daily life and ministry life. What a blessing— what a sisterhood we can have as ministry wives.

This article originally appeared at ronniefloyd.com.

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