Officially Joining

Near our home there is a little white church that we drove passed quite regularly. We talked off and on about joining it. We never did. We decided that since The Boy was raised Christian and I was raised Catholic, we'd allow our children to decide the religion that they felt was best for them. We attended both services, at one or two different churches. We never really felt like we belonged anywhere though.

You see things are a little different for us, and we understand that. First of all we have 5 beautiful children, add that our relative young ages and the fact that we each had a child before we began dating plus sprinkle a little "we weren't married when our children we born" on top and you get quite the "you're not good enough to be here cause your a sinner" pie. We ate several helpings of that bitter dish before backing off completely. We just kinda figured that as long as we did the things that we believed were best, that we were raising our girls with the morals and beliefs that we laid down and felt were proper, things were bound to turn out okay. We have friends that both attend church regularly and some that don't attend at all. We have friends of various faiths and some that are Atheist. We purposely exposed our children to a variety of religions so that when the time came for them to make their choice they would be making an informed choice. Not everyone agreed with our approach, in fact almost no one did. We didn't mind, we're kinda used to that.

Eventually, my mom, (Grandma), moved to our area, and began attending the little white church. We dropped her off diligently each Sunday and picked her up after service. This went on for months. Finally one day I decided that I wanted to go with her. I can't explain why, I just knew that the day had arrived and I wanted to go. Something urged me to get up, get dressed, and walk through the doors of the little white church with her that day. The girls and I went. The Boy decided that he wasn't going to go. Alright, was this really okay? Yep, you know why? We'll I'll tell ya - NO ONE should push their beliefs on another person, and this includes your spouse. If the Lord wanted him to attend, he would tell him so. He would bring that same feeling to The Boy that I had felt. The one that would urge him to walk through the doors of the little white church.

About a month after the girls and I started attending church, The Boy and I had our marriage tested in a way that is indescribable. Terrible things were said and done, our faith was tested like it had never been tested before. People we knew and people we didn't know prayed for us, and we truly feel that those prayers brought us through that awful time. Now don't think that we came through unscathed, because we didn't. We did however come through it stronger and more prepared for life's trials and tribulations.

Fast forward months down the road, and our family now fills a pew at Cottage Way Christian Church. Our little white church. The one that is filled with people that we have grown to care about, people that make us feel welcome and care about us too. A few weeks ago, we stood as a family to make the good confession, and join our church family, officially. So today and many more Sundays to come you will find us filling a pew at our church. You can't miss us, we're the one with all the little blonde girls. *wink*