Cavanaugh helps ministers’ wives beat giants
OSAGE BEACH—Known as being an effective writer and speaker, Connie Cavanaugh blessed the wives of Missouri Baptist pastors Oct. 30 during a Ministers’ Wives Luncheon at the 173rd annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) held here at Tan-Tar-A.
MBC Staffer Becky Kelley, who set up the program and made it possible for Cavanaugh to speak, led the ladies in a time of prayer before the luncheon.
After lunch, Becky Pinick led special music. During the inspirational music there were slides being shown of families and children, some of whom were in Third World countries. The song “It is Well with my Soul” was sung as Pinick sang through the hymn with the shedding of tears throughout. Donna Laramore had the privilege of introducing Cavanaugh and giving the ladies the topic of the luncheon by simply saying, “we’re on a journey, which is why we’ve titled the topic of this luncheon ‘The Journey: Facing the Giants of Ministry.’”
Being the wife of a minister, mother of three, writer, and speaker, Cavanaugh is no stranger to the many “giants” wives of ministers face. She has shared and ministered to other pastor wives all over the world.
“It smells like fall here in Missouri…for us in Canada fall happens on a Tuesday afternoon!”
Making the women in the audience feel as comfortable as possible, Cavanaugh opened up with humor but also made sure the ladies knew that she is “a sinner saved by grace, called out by a ‘reckless’ God to share of His redemption.”
Cavanaugh started by sharing what she calls the “do-do passage” in Romans 7:19-20. The verses say: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” She went on to say that although as ministers’ wives there is still a struggle with sin that being the wife of a pastor comes with great responsibility. She challenged the ladies to continually refer to Ephesians 4:1, which says, “As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
“Some of you might not have been specifically called to be in ministry, but I’ll tell you, if you’re married to a minister, you’re in ministry,” said Cavanaugh as she told the ladies about her life of ministry. “Every believer faces giants in the Christian life, but I think that we have an example in the life of David on how to beat the giants in our lives,” Cavanaugh said.
First Samuel 17:35, where David killed Goliath, is the Bible verse that Cavanaugh used as she gave the ladies different points to remember as they fight their giants. One of those points was that David never fought in anyone else’s armor. “If David would’ve fought in Saul’s armor like was offered to him, he would’ve died,” said Cavanaugh, “David fought his giant with who he was, and although it is very tempting to fight in someone else’s armor, we must do the same.”
Cavanaugh also encouraged the ladies with her second point when she said, “David fought his giant with what he had. Sometimes it may seem as if we only have a sling and a stone to fight our giants, but we must go out as David did and say, ‘I come after you in the name of the Lord Almighty.’”
