Photo taken in Wyoming on a trip to Yellowstone
(I don’t know why I equate God with beautiful skies, maybe because they are so big!)
Toward the end of January we picked a church to call our home. The kids have been attending the youth program on Wednesdays and we joined a life group in the same time slot. We’ll be starting the process of joining by going through their membership classes soon, but as far as we are concerned we’re committed. We’re glad to be done with ‘church shopping’, it’s not a fun process. And we are excited about finding where we can fit in and user our gifts at Crossroads Fellowship.
They did a study on the book My One word last year and the church picked a word as well as asking the membership to pick words for themselves. They continued the tradition this year with the church’s word being ‘Intentional’ and they are making a photo board of individuals with their word.
In my sarcastic-head-voice I thought to myself that I didn’t want to pick a word because then I would just be tested in that area. 😉 But God gave me a word anyway and it is “Presence”. I picked John 15:5 as my focus verse “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
I wanted it to be about me taking time out of my crazy mommy/teacher life to spend in God’s presence. To try to find some calm and to guard it. To not just do study time, but to soak. I also wanted it to be about me being present with the kids. I know what you are thinking, I already spend 24/7 with them. It is true, but I have this habit of always having something to do. I’m always ‘doing’ school, ‘doing’ the dishes, ‘doing’ laundry, sneaking off to ‘do’ Facebook time while they watch TV, ‘doing’ my quiet time while they do theirs, etc. It turns out my kids don’t care about clean kitchens or clothes and even though we do a lot of stuff together, they still want me to play with them, watch them, help them, and hold them. So this is my focus for the year.
God’s Presence and Being Present!
Emily G I completely agree with the beauty in the sky equating to being surrounded by His glory! Beautiful! Excited for y’all and your new church home.
Beverly M You’ve moved and had to change churches a few times in the past few years; how do you pick the best church for you and your family?
Rebecca Diltz Nate Moehring An excellent question. . . when we left yours after trying to find what we thought we wanted, we got fed up with searching and just googled “church” near our address and we landed at 2 Rivers which was a wonderful blessing and a huge area of growth for us for 5 years. When we moved to California, we tried to find something similar to 2 Rivers and only tried one church, Gardena Valley, and it was similar enough that we didn’t even go to any others. When we moved here (we’re in the bible belt now), there are a ton of churches. Basically one on every corner! We were hoping to find something similar to our previous two and haven’t found that within a reasonable distance. Plus we were visiting places during the holidays and schedules are out the window and things aren’t ‘normal’ and we were here a good month before we bought our house. Our criteria has changed a little bit as well now that the kids are older. A good children’s and youth program is a lot more important than it was before and we also want it to be within 10 min drive so we can be involved without being drained. So, Crossroads has a lot of the qualities we want, but few things are a little different so we had a sit down with the pastors and told them our story and where we would want to fit in and they seemed happy to have us. We’ll find out!
Rebecca Diltz Nate Moehring It’s a frustrating process, especially after the last two churches basically fell into our laps. Hopefully we don’t have to look anymore, but if things don’t work out, we have to do what’s best for us.
Beverly M Thanks Rebecca, we need to get back at the search ourselves; too many mega churches to stay clear of in the SE valley. You and Your family are such a great Inspiration!!