Ministers' Wives: A Christian Fiction Novel

By Lisa Blakely

Nicolette has just accepted a marriage proposal from the love of her life, Minister Jeremy Jeffers. The sparkle of the ring, the butterflies in the stomach, the rat a tat tat of her beating heart had her whole being infused with joy. This was the happiest day of her entire life; at least, for an hour. After Jeremy left, she suddenly began worryi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956896909

Lisa Blakely

Lisa Blakely graduated Tulane University with a degree in communications and later received her master's in mental health and marriage and family therapy from Barry University. She has practiced as a psychotherapist for over twenty years, working with clients on a wide range of issues, including NPD and narcissistic abuse. Lisa currently lives in Florida with her family. She loves to travel, exercise, and cook cuisines from around the world. Her most important commitment is helping others recognize and escape narcissistic abuse.

Book preview

Prologue

Laura Phillips and Rebecca Anderson set up the chairs for this month’s meeting of Ministers’ Wives. What a blessing these meetings had proven to be. When they first started a couple of years ago, they had no idea how large the group would grow and how essential it would be to the wives across the spectrum of denominations, ages, socioeconomic and ethnicities. The only thing they all had in common were they were all part of that unique demographic of being ministers’ wives. No one could understand the intricacies of being a minister’s wife, except someone who was.

Rebecca and Laura had basically become the leaders of the group though they also had issues and challenges in their own lives. As they prepared for the influx of members, they joined hands and prayed. They never knew how many new people would be there. It was amazing to them that they came from so many different churches, did not advertise but yet people who needed to be there, seemed to find their way there. God was Awesome. As always the two felt an air of excitement as the members would soon begin entering.

Nicolette sat quietly behind the curtain separating her from these women. Her excitement did not mirror the two ladies speaking. Her excitement was more pure nerves. She felt sick to her stomach and tears were already forming in the corners of her eyes. Nicolette had accepted a marriage proposal from Jeremy Williams. Initially, she was so thrilled and then it hit her; he was a minister. Ministers lived under spotlights and had to live spotless lives, didn’t they? What would this mean for the wife? Would everyone be in their business, and would she be expected to be perfect? She wasn’t perfect! Would she ruin this man of God? How could she say she loved him and then mess up his life??? This was why Nicolette found herself sort of crashing this ministers’ wives group. She needed answers and she didn’t know where else to get them. Now she needed to calm her nerves and be as silent as the proverbial church mouse and not be discovered.

Nicolette Roberts (soon to be Williams)

With pounding heart, sweaty, shaking hands, and tears forming in her eyes, Nicolette continued to whisper to herself, surely, it doesn’t have to be like this; not all marriages to ministers have to be this way, do they? Nicolette was trying to be as quiet as possible and make herself as tiny as possible while she listened in on the minister’s wives’ meeting. Remaining hidden behind the curtain separating sanctuary from the back of the stage, Nicolette questioned her eaves dropping on the meeting. Was it really wrong though? After all, within a few weeks she would be ‘one of them’. From what she was hearing, though, she didn’t know if she truly wanted to be one of them……

Nicolette was considered a beauty by most anyone standards. With her cinnamon-colored baby smooth skin, her amber colored almond shaped eyes and her shoulder length curly chocolate moussed colored hair, heads always turned when she walked in a room. Nicolette’s genuine, gentle spirit enhanced her looks even more. She, however, was fully oblivious to the effect she had on men and women alike. She, thus, was so shocked when Minister Jeremy Williams introduced himself after service one Sunday and then seemed to make a conscious effort to be in contact with her every opportunity he had. Nicole was flattered for Jeremy was considered a catch amongst the single women in the church congregation. Standing 6 feet tall with coffee with cream complexion, deep brown eyes and closely shaven hair, he had a smile that literally seemed to be lit with a 100-watt bulb when he chose to smile. Jeremy appeared sincere in praise and worship service and his voice resonated with the spirit when he spoke. He was not one of the main pastoral assistants, but his presence was very present whenever he was in the room.

Minister Jeremy had noticed Nicolette months before he ever approached her. Many women (foolish girls in his mind) approached him and flirted outrageously constantly. He found it very disturbing and un-Christ-like. He often wondered if they attended church to worship God or if they were simply on the prowl for an eligible man. Their choice of clothing often seemed as if it would be more appropriate in a club and this, too, was another reason Nicolette stood out. She dressed modestly but very flattering for her body type. One could not miss Nicolette. When he finally decided to approach her, he was amused by her obvious surprise as her eyes widened and there was a slight tremor in her smile. This only endeared her to him even more.

After several casual, after service interactions, with Nicolette, Jeremy asked her on a real date. That first date at a very low-key restaurant turned into a four-hour date that night and then led to many others. Both Jeremy and Nicolette were delighted to find their initial impressions of just observing each other, were indeed accurate.

Nicolette was startled out of her reflections about her and Jeremy and abruptly reminded of where she was and why she was struggling with becoming a minister’s wife as she heard Mindy talking about her husband, Joshua.

Mindy Jeffers

The Ministers’ Wives meeting was basically a support group for, as name indicated, wives of ministers. The outside world saw these women as having glamourous, upscale, privileged lives. They could not begin to comprehend what their lives were with their husbands. Husbands who were seldom present at family outings; husbands who were dedicated first to the church image of whom they were; husbands who constantly had women throwing themselves at them. These wives had to learn patience, discernment and live on bended knee to maintain sanity and their marriages. Many of them did just this but there were certain ones who chose to buy into the persona/image and were more concerned with their standard of living than serving as spiritual help mates for their husbands. Mindy was of the first group and not the latter.

Mindy sometimes hesitated to bring up home issues in this group of women, but she was in such deep pain now, she felt she had no choice. She had always strived to be a godly wife. She stood by her husband, supporting him in the ministry and not allowing other women to cause her to act unchristian. She remained humble, meek and uncomplaining. Mindy never denied her husband in the bedroom, kept a clean home, did not do extravagant spending, was by her husband’s side at every event in which he was required to attend. She was a stay-at-home wife and mother, outside of all she did for her husband. Mindy loved Joshua Jeffers beyond anything, anyone other than her heavenly Father. She, therefore, was devastated by her most recent discovery. She could not believe her husband of fifteen years would ever be guilty of this behavior.

Mindy and Joshua met twenty years prior on, of all days, college graduation. Mindy often wondered why she had never met Joshua on campus those prior four years. He, too, had commented on that, but finally decided God needed to reach him and save him before he was allowed to meet Mindy. Mindy was raised in church and embraced salvation very early in her life, at the age of 13. She had lived a Christian life from that point on. Now, she had been a teen and had made her share of mistakes, but she did not ever renounce her salvation or deny her belief in her Heavenly Father. She had a very active prayer life and diligently studied scripture, especially during her college years. Though she was now a stay-at-home wife and mother, she had initially majored in business. She found this degree served her well in managing the household financial budget.

Joshua had been a self-proclaimed heathen. He had been ‘full of himself’; chased anything in a skirt, tried anything offered to him by way of chemical substances (but by the grace of God never became addicted; it was always recreational) and truly believe he was the ‘master of his own fate’. Being very academically intelligent did nothing to deter him from his own pompous opinion of himself. When he met Mindy, he said he believed God knew he would attempt to corrupt Mindy if he had met her prior. The end of his junior year of college, nevertheless, Joshua had a conversion; a come to Jesus meeting as he called it. He had been beaten nearly unconscious at a party and as he felt life slipping from him, he heard himself scream, Jesus, help! Joshua believed that was his own personal Saul/Paul conversion when God not only saved his life but saved his soul. Mindy commented that, that still gave them a year to meet on campus. Joshua said God used that year to teach, train and refine him.

Joshua got Mindy’s phone number that day at graduation and much to her surprise, called her two days later. Their first date was actually to meet at church and go to dinner afterwards. Joshua was intrigued and admired Mindy’s early and continued dedication to God and Mindy was impressed with Joshua’s testimony in that the person he described was a complete 180 from the person she met. She said if she hadn’t already believed in the Trinity, she would have then. Joshua and Mindy did what he called courting (because unlike anything he had with anyone else; he genuinely wanted to get to know ‘her’, and he wanted to date her according to Biblical standards) for one year. They were married that summer in a God centered ceremony and in Mindy’s mind, had been happy since that day. Oh, they had to adjust to each other and learn to navigate life, but they were happy.

Now, Mindy was in tears, shaking her head in disbelief. She prayed this was one moment of weakness and would be a one-time episode. That did not change the current damage, but she didn’t want her life to be this drastically changed because she had loved her husband, her life and had always felt her marriage was God ordained, so she did not want to give up. Mindy was hoping the other wives could give her advice and above all else, uplift them in prayer because she knew God works miracles and changes things when petitioning Him in sincerity and within His will.

Nicolette gasped loudly when she heard Mindy speaking. The room got quiet, and she grabbed her mouth to muffle the sound. It seemed like an hour, though in reality, it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, before Mindy resumed talking. Of all the ministerial husbands, Nicolette would never have imagined that Minister Jeffers would be involved in this. The Jeffers appeared to be perfect in every way. When Minister Jeffers delivered the word of God or even just led a Bible study, the message resonated deeply in the souls of everyone present. He had readily shared his testimony and not in a boastful way, but in a humble, repentant manner. Mindy was the epitome of a minister’s wife. People often joked that if you looked up minister’s wife in the dictionary, you’d find Mindy’s picture. The couple even looked awesome together. He stood about 5'10 with slim build, wavy dark hair, mocha colored, twinkling eyes, dimple in left cheek; she was 5'7, a size 8 body, (wives often told her they could not believe she had ever given birth to any human and still look like that), had below shoulder length straight locks that she always wore in a simple chignon or just hanging loosely. Her eyes seemed to be the color of chocolate mint and her dimple was on the right side. How much more perfect could this couple look together. Tears streamed down Nicolette’s face as she forgot her own misgivings and just felt deep compassion/hurt for Mindy.

After everyone had gotten quiet and looked around for the slight noise heard but decided it must have been the wind or something, Mindy continued speaking in her infamously soft, but determined voice.

Mindy said she had gotten the kids off to school and had returned home to start housework when the doorbell rang. Initially, she thought Joshua had forgotten something and had returned home to retrieve whatever it was; she figured one of those things were his house keys. For all his amazing qualities, he was notoriously forgetful. As she approached the door with teasing in her eyes, and smile on the tip of her tongue, she was stopped short when she saw police officers on her doorstep. They inquired of Minister Jeffers’ whereabouts. Considering they knew her husband was a minister, she uncharacteristically, wanted to snap and ask where they thought he was. Instead, she managed to calmly say that he counseled at the church through the week where he was one of the associate ministers. Mindy inquired as to what this concerned. Of course, no direct answer was given; instead, they inquired if she knew of a young lady named Ginny. She said yes that she was in their youth group at church. They asked if Minister Jeffers knew her. With a tight feeling in her gut and voice, she replied, yes, as previously stated, she is in our youth group. They wanted to know if Minister Jeffers had ever seen her in counseling. Mindy was working really hard to not give into anger or anxiety and to continue to reply in an even tone. She stated that would be confidential information and that they should really speak to Ginny about that and/or Minister Jeffers, though reminding them, that was of a confidential nature. One of the police officers sneakily stated they had already spoken with Ginny and that is why they were looking for Minister Jeffers. Mindy told them they should go to the church and speak with him.

When they left, Mindy doubled over from anxiety and fear. She had a sick feeling in her stomach and her mind was wildly going in all directions. She splashed her face with water, steadied her hands and dialed her husband. When he cheerily answered, she had a brief moment of peace. Mindy then shared with him that the police were on their way to see him something about Ginny. The cheerfulness disappeared from Joshua’s voice and with what Mindy perceived as fear, asked how long ago they were there. She said just a few minutes ago and wanted to know what was going on. He just said to not worry and hung up. Mindy stared at the phone in disbelief. Her husband, her Joshua, her love of her life, her children’s dad, her head of the household, her powerful minister, had hung up on her. Fear overwhelmed, tears fell, and some animal was howling in pain; oh, she was that animal howling in pain. Mindy knew; she just knew. Mindy hit her knees to wait to hear from God while waiting to get the full story.

Joshua broke out in a sweat and frantically paced his office floor. He knew why the cops were coming. He had hoped the incident would just be swept under the rug and he could just ask God’s forgiveness and never have to tell Mindy. He had felt so guilty when Ginny left his office, he had laid prostrate on his office floor and cried out to the Lord with sweat and tears. He had become physically ill with what he had done. After several weeks had passed and nothing had ‘come to light’, he had believed he had escaped the proverbial bullet, but now judgement day was here.

Minister Jeffers allowed his mind to take him back to that day while trying to figure out what he would say to Mindy. The day had been one of those that made people believe in a ‘higher being’ even if they didn’t want to acknowledge the true creator. Seventeen-year-old Ginny had made an appointment for counseling. Generally, Minister Jeffers never saw any female, no matter the age, for counseling alone. Either Mindy or his female secretary would sit in sessions when any females were scheduled for counseling. On this particular day, Mindy had obligations at one of their children’s schools and his secretary had agreed to sit in. She, however, had become very ill and had to leave work. Joshua had thought maybe he should call Ginny and reschedule, but before he could follow through, she was there. He still planned to apologize and tell her they would need to reschedule, but when he saw the stress on the young lady’s face and the barely kept in check tears, he went against his better judgement and ushered her into the office. Ginny was a beautiful young lady on the brink of true adulthood. With her long wavy auburn hair hanging down her back and her water filled big blue eyes, she looked so vulnerable. Initially, Joshua felt nothing but concern and compassion; once Ginny opened up about having just experienced her first heartbreak and how stupid and humiliated she felt, Joshua felt anger towards the unknown male, knowing his own daughter would one day have this experience. When Ginny had cried herself out, she began to berate herself; talk about it being her fault because she wasn’t pretty enough, smart enough, etc. Joshua didn’t even remember walking to the sofa and sitting next to her. Next thing he knew he was wrapping his arms around her, lifting her face to get her to look at him while he told her she was gorgeous and any boy that didn’t see it, was just too immature. Ginny cried some more and as children will do, innocently threw her arms around his neck and sought reassurance that he truly thought she was pretty. Joshua swept her hair out of her face, lifted her chin so he could look in her eyes, held her very close and next thing he knew, he was kissing her. As he rubbed his hand up and down her back and laid his head atop her head, he barely noticed how she had stiffened, nor did he see the look of horror on her face. Suddenly, he had come to himself; deeply apologized to her and asked for her forgiveness. Ginny had just looked frightened and even sadder than when she first came in; she slightly nodded her head and ran from the office. That had been weeks ago, and now he had to face consequences with the law and worse still, with the church and Mindy.

Hours later, Mindy received the call to come to the police station and retrieve her husband. The ride home was silent, except for basic information as to Joshua’s court date; and his need to speak with the senior pastor. Upon arrival home, Mindy and Joshua sat down and he, through tears and begging for forgiveness, shared the whole story. As is human nature, he tried to downplay it and make it seem innocent; stating there was no sexual contact and nothing like this had ever happened previously. Mindy was horrified; she told him he didn’t deserve a cookie because it didn’t lead to sex and that it hadn’t ever happened before; she told him it should never have happened ever with anyone! She reminded him he was minister and thus, had higher standards by which he needed to abide. She reminded him that even if he wasn’t a minister, he was married and asked how he would feel if a minister had done this with ‘his’ daughter. Anger and venom poured from her, surprising even herself with the intensity. Sitting here now, though with the other wives, she only felt humiliation and the deepest emotional pain she had ever felt. She sat, waiting for judgement from the other wives……

Much to her surprise, she only saw looks of sympathy. No one voiced any condemnation towards her nor Joshua.

Nicolette was still reeling from what she just heard. She almost missed the name of the next lady speaking. She pulled her mind back into the game. As it turned out, Nicolette needed not worry about missing what Samantha was saying, for she was only introducing herself to some newcomers. She was not going to share her problems; oh, she had them and she lived them daily, but she was not going to voice them out loud.

Samantha Jones

Samantha sat with a look of support and compassion on her face for Mindy. Inwardly, however, she scoffed at what she considered a minor infraction. Most likely, Minister Jeffers would have to make amends with Ginny’s family, not be allowed to counsel with any of the women without specific permission from the senior pastor and most definitely would always have to be accompanied by his wife or other female staff when counseling. Basically, she felt he’d get a slap on the wrist by the legal system (knowing the church’s attorney would represent him quietly) and then Minister and Mrs. Perfect could continue with their perfect little lives. She wished her only issue with her husband was a minor flirtation and slightly inappropriate behavior with a young lady who was practically an adult anyway….

Samantha knew everyone saw her and Frederick as being the epitome of success. Samantha and Fred, as she called him, had both had financially privileged upbringings. People looked through the Joneses and only saw their 4000 square foot home, their two children who were now productive young adults – their daughter went to Spellman College and now was a university professor of women’s studies and their son, Harvard graduate, newly married, was the stereotypical corporate attorney. Samantha and Minister Frederick Jones both sported designer clothes and top of the line vehicles of their choice of any make any time they chose. She personally thought very little of her husband’s ministry in that most of his sermons involved ‘name it; claim it’; that God desired all his children to prosper (financially) and when they did, it was because they were in God’s will. So deep she was in her musings, she almost scoffed aloud. In her mind, Fred was the epitome of the little Napoleon complex.

Even though he came from a monied background and basically had never wanted for anything materialistic, she knew Fred’s insecurity came from his physical stature. Fred was considered short standing about 5'6". He always struggled with his weight, and he overcompensated for his insecurities by flashing his success, being boisterous in social situations and always declaring how good God was to him. In public, he always boasted of his children and showed Samantha off. She was just his trophy wife.

Samantha dressed the part of his trophy wife. Samantha was 5'8", wore stylish clothing; wore her hair in a sophisticated page boy style and was always dripping in some kind of jewelry given to her by Fred. Though she too was from a fairly wealthy family, money meant nothing to her. The clothing and jewelry meant nothing – they only served as part of the façade. Samantha and Frederick had known each other all their lives. Their families basically forced them into marriage. It was more of a business move than anything, so their families could maintain a certain image/status by merging businesses together. The one thing Samantha and her husband had in common was they always did what their parents expected/demanded of them, so when they were pushed together and it was clear they were expected to marry one day, they went along with the program. Fred was more excited about it than Samantha because she fit the image he wanted in a wife and it made him feel as if others looked at him in envy, which he deeply desired. Now that they had been married 30 years and had produced two successful children and Fred was an associate pastor