Finding a Community Around You

You hear all the time that God has a plan for your life and things happen when he thinks your ready for them.  Well sometimes that is hard because we like things now, and sometimes when your in the middle of a really bad storm in your life you are angry because you don't understand why this is happening to you at this moment.  But I can honestly say we have had our years of crazy life situations that we didn't want to be in but we were, and that caused us to have lots of anger and confusion.  But once you have overcome those obstacles you can look back and reflect what has just happened to you. Then you begin making adjustments to see what the bigger picture will looks like.

I also believe God places you where he thinks you need to be! When we were about to be married 11 years ago we were looking for a place to call home.  I believe we were young and naive and we felt like home should be where our family is. So we bought a cute little farm house in the middle of the country.  After a few years later we decided i think it's time to move away from there to the cities.  That was a big decision because we had already grew our family and everything and everyone was there.  We listed our home and less then 2 weeks we sold it with not a clue where we were moving to.  But God had a plan for us....why else would our house sell so fast in a terrible market?  We searched many houses in 6 million different towns but nothing was right, until we stumbled upon our house. It fit our growing family, in great shape, and close to Scott's work.  Shortly after moving in Scott lost his job and things began to spiral, the life we knew got scary, frustrating, and felt down right unfair.  Scott left his family to seek work in another state while his pregnant wife and 2 year old were at home alone in a new house, new town, and new neighborhood.  But threw this process we have learned to meet new people, start new friendships, and grow our community of people we needed to rely on.

One of the biggest community of people is the people from a church. I admit we never attended church when I was in college, or through our first 5 years of marriage. We knew we should attend but we didn't feel comfortable in the churches we did attend. It's not easy finding the right church to call home but being committed is very important. We attended many churches in the new area we lived and walked away defeated many many times. We had a list of things that we felt were important to us and not every place met that list. But after being recommend to try Eagle Brook, we tried it, we loved, and because of it we grew so much in our self, or relationship with each other and in the kids.  I'm not saying this church is perfect, but i don't think any church is. I can honestly say i have found many dear true friends because of that place. It didn't happen at first but after jumping into being a volunteer and joining small groups it slowly began to happen.  I have a long list of people i can call when I'm sad, happy, confused, when I'm needing strength and encouragement. If you have never experienced that i sure hope you find it, because there is not a day that goes by that i don't reach out to one of them!

For example the other night after leaving bible study i was laying in bed just feeling extremely blessed to have them in my life. I was always scared to join a group in fear i wasn't liked, or didn't know enough about the bible, or whatever  crazy idea i made up about myself to not attend a group.  I am so glad a friend was persistent on me joining because it has changed me so much. I feel not so alone, and that is one of the best feelings ever.  We are all here for a reason and we work together to accomplish this.

We also started grew friendships with our neighbors. We live in a very mixed aged neighborhood, which at first made me feel alone. But once you go out of your way to get to know them, you quickly realize it doesn't matter there age.  I have a few older ladies that i can call up and ask them to go walking with me anytime of the day, or come over to babysit if i need to run a kid up to the doctor, or even borrow a baking ingredient. You hear all the time that nobody know there neighbors and that is so sad. We live in a super self absorb world and people are searching for it but are to afraid to put themselves out there to people.

Sorry for the crazy rambling but when you discover something you just want to share with others in hope that they are able to reap the joys as much as you.




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