In My Own Backyard

Sometimes in life you have to own up and admit when you are wrong.  As much as I hate to admit it, I have been wrong time and time again since moving to NC.  Despite many hours of thought and planning, my ideas about how life should be have been ended up disastrous.  Fortunately for me, God and my family have shown me grace, love and, unconditional support.

Even though I am 45 years old I still believe in fairy tales.  God has blessed me with far more than I ever deserve.  I have a wonderful husband,  2 beautiful daughters, and everything I could ever want in life……and yet something was missing.  Our family had become an island, we were connected to almost  no one in the small town in which we live. 

So what does a good Christian girl do when she is looking for some company?  I started looking for a new church.  Not just any church, a big church.  A church with all the bells and whistles a church could possibly have.  It wasn't long before I found "the church".   This was going to be great, all of our needs were going to be met.  “Wow, I am good.”

Well, my enthusiasm, and that of my family was short lived.  I did not take into consideration that our new super church was almost 40 miles from our house.  That meant getting up at the crack of dawn, driving 80 miles round trip for Sunday morning service, and driving another 80 miles for evening classes.  Worse yet, while we were willing to drive to "the church" none of our new friends would return the favor.  We were still a lonely island in our small town. 

Frustrated and exhausted I had to admit I made a mistake picking our new church.  What good was a great sermon when I slept through it?  I knew I needed to make a better choice for my family.  My prejudice against small town churches had to be set aside.  Just because I life in our small town had not been all sunshine and roses didn't mean that our little town couldn’t have a good church.

God is good!  Despite my pride and prejudice we found a great church.  We also managed to find some really great people who host a church, community group 1 street over from our house.  It has taken us, mostly me, 3 years to be comfortable in our own back yard.  I have let  personal feelings cloud my judgment on the town in which we live.  Another mistake I had to own up to.

Despite my hopes, my fairy tale dreams crashed and burned not long after we moved to NC.  I may have been let down by more than one person in our new life, but God has introduced a new cast of characters.  God does not want us to be islands unto ourselves.  We are meant to be part of a community of the faithful, we are also meant to open our doors to strangers in need.  The next time I feel the need to go searching for something I know I won't go so far.  I now know that their are many hidden treasures in my own backyard.