Thursday, January 24, 2008

Living a "Community Life"

Boy is this month FLYING BY! January always seems to though. Between putting away all the Christmas decorations, sorting old toys and new toys, cleaning out and replacing clothes in the closets, my birthday, Chris's birthday, planning Adrianna's party at the beginning of February. . . then of course now add in things like my sister moving to Texas, my niece's baptism, weekly church leadership meetings, our weekly ladies only night at Starbucks to discuss our Bible readings, mom's group activities, an upcoming Marriage Weekend hosted by our Pastor Kyle, and one of the real biggies, preparing for our Resonate Community Preview Party on March 28th!!!! WOW! Our days and nights along with our weekends are quite busy, to say the least, but it's "GOOD BUSY".

We spend about 2-3 nights a week hanging out either eating dinner, dessert, or just having coffee with different friends, we have storytime at the Library once a week, a playdate usually once a week, and the rest of the time it's just Chris and I with the kids! We hang out with his brothers and my sister on the weekends or at least every other weekend and I really feel like THIS is what living is. Some moments seem overwhelming, I'm not going to lie about that, but I DO tend to put alot on my plate since I love to be busy! That is why I have Chris, to put me in check on Sunday nights when I show him the following week's menu and plans with other people and if it's too much or too busy, he lets me know, that's for sure. He is so funny! He isn't one to go ahead and say, "Hey, let's invite this one or that one over tonight" but whenever I do, he is always happy afterwards. He's grown very comfortable with having our lives fuller and our schedules busier and actually misses it when people aren't around, out of town, or sick. He has even become much better at bringing up church stuff, talking about "connecting with other people" and stuff like that without ME initiating the conversation, THAT'S HUGE! We are part of a community now, it's small but has grown ALOT in the past year. Slow growth, but steady and strong. That is what Chris likes and I'm really learning to appreciate that pace a little bit more now too. We do have a rule that events, and other people do come secondary to our children and each other. We have to make sure we are nurtured before we can get out there and reach other people.

I've seen first hand that Church planting isn't for everyone and that we have to be very good at our time management, keeping our priorities in the correct order,and not being afraid to have a rough week where we just need some quiet time, we are human after all! But when you are able to reflect a year later and see the change in the people around you as well as experience your own personal growth then it seems TOTALLY worth it! The missed tv shows, the load of laundry that didn't get done, and the other countless chores or small things that I can't even think of now that seemed probably bigger at the time we first got involved in our church plant don't even matter now so that's even more reassuring that we are on the correct path. . . we are truly living our lives the way we always wanted to.

Lots of good stuff to talk about and share in the upcoming months. Spring this year is going to be FULL of growth in all areas of our life. :)

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