Changes

Don't you just love how God works? I wholeheartedly believe in the power of prayer and God's omnipotence. But.....it never ceases to amaze me when He answers my prayers. I don't do too well at "making a long story short".....so bear with me. Some twenty five years ago, Tony and I joined a little church in the community where we still live. This church was such a delight for us. We had spent several years prior to joining this church in what can only be described as living in rebellion. As teenagers, we had both made professions of our faith in Jesus. But neither of us had ever made Him the Lord of our life. We had several years of living very much outside the will of God.........but as He lets us make our choices, He also lets us have consequences of those choices........and in our case that almost cost us our marriage. As God would have it, we bowed the knee and turned back to Him. In what can only be attributed as a miracle from God......He healed a broken and bruised marriage and turned it into something that has withstood the past twenty five years pretty well!!!
When God healed our marriage, we realized that we needed to be in church with the precious 3 year old daughter that He had blessed us with. We did some church visiting before we found our "home" at Hebron Baptist Church. This was a small country church with a small membership and alot of the members were related either by blood or marriage.....but these precious folks took us in and loved us like their very own. We had alot of fun, fellowship and spiritual growth during those years. Being a small church has so many advantages, but one disadvantage is sometimes not having many children....... and while this is not an issue with younger children, it can get to be an issue when you have "youth" age children. When our youngest was beginning the "youth" years, we didn't have any other kids her age at church. Our kids had participated in youth activities at the church in town for some years, but as our oldest was ready for college and the youngest was only thirteen, this was a problem. I have always felt that kids need a good youth group, and while our small church provided for that when our eldest was a "youth", we just didn't have the kids when baby girl got there. I also believe that families need to worship together. Taking all these things into consideration.....we started praying about what to do. We felt that God was directing us to go to the church in town where baby girl would have a youth group. Just let me say that leaving this "family" at Hebron was the hardest thing that we had ever done. We had been there for fifteen years, we had seen both our girls pass through the baptismal waters in this church. We had grieved the loss of precious members and we had laughed and cried, sang and danced
sorry about that, we didn't dance....we are Baptist......I got carried away in the moment! Anyway.....you get the point....it was HARD to leave. We were welcomed with open arms at Carrollton Baptist Church and we grew to love the people there. We have had some wonderful times in this fellowship of Christians. I was so blessed to be a part of a biblestudy group for young women called "The Sisterchicks!" I grew to love those girls like they were mine. We have celebrated the birth of precious babies, we've grieved the death of beloved family members, the pain of divorce, and we have laughed like complete idiots at and with each other.....but more than anything else, we grew together in our love for our Lord. Tony and I have wonderful memories that we will carry with us forever. In the past couple of years, we both have had a spirit of unrest. We have talked about what to do, we have prayed about what to do.....we have ignored what we felt like we needed to do for fear of hurting those we love.....but if you have been in this walk with the Lord for very long, you know that He speaks to you in times of unrest. We had been diligently praying about what He would have us do. As much as we loved our Carrollton folks, we just really missed "home." We also worried that maybe you can't really "go home." We decided to go back for "Homecoming" the third Sunday in May, and suffice it to say, we felt like we had truly gone "home." We decided to go back the next Sunday, just to see if we still felt the same on a "regular" Sunday....and we did....maybe even more so. There are lots of new faces there and lots of the old faces are gone..........but it still has that sweet, sweet spirit, and we now know that you really can "go home"!! I don't know what God has planned for us, but I'm excited and looking forward to the ride!! Pray for us as we find our place in what God wants us to do.
I hope you will find your place in your body of believers this Sunday. There's just nothing quiet like worshipping our God in the fellowship of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Have a great and safe weekend.