I guess that's all I'm gonna talk about today--ordinary stuff. Unless I get inspired. Today I've done several different things. For starters, I went with my Lady's Bible Class to an assisted living unit where we put on a big tea party and talked with the residents. It went really well and we all had a good time together. I loved seeing the reactions of all the lady's when I'd answer the inevitable question of when I was due. "Tomorrow" *gasps* Ha ha! So funny. But like I've said all along, I have a feeling she's gonna be late. I guess I have to wait till tomorrow to be proven right, though...
Then I came home and wrote a fair amount of thank you notes. Joe said it seems like I'm always doing this. Well, it did take me for freakin' ever to finish our wedding thank you's (technically, I probably still owe a couple people a thank you note...I'm sorry!), and then with three baby showers this year, I've had a lot more to write since then! Luckily, the ladies at church are super sweet and understanding. They know we've been busy getting the nursery ready and everything else. However, I've just GOT to finish them before the baby comes, otherwise they may never get done! Or I'll just be writing them when I go into labor. ;)
Some exciting news on the horizon: Joe and I have been meeting with the minister of the church we've been visiting and his wife to discuss membership! We've wanted to become members for a while, but being gone so much of the summer kind of pulled us away from it for a while. However, as we've been settling back into a routine here, we really feel God leading us to do this. I have to say, I'm not sure I've ever felt like a part of a church before. Maybe that's due to the fact that I grew up mostly visiting churches for a long time before becoming a member. But even when we'd become members, feeling a part of the church didn't seem to last for long. Whether it was because we moved to another one or I just never felt like I had a place there, I'm not sure. However, with this church I have sensed a strong sense of community and family ever since our first visit there. Even as visitors I have felt like we have some kind of place in the church. We've been treated like family even though we have not formally (or even physically) committed to it. Members have had us come to their house for meals, brought us meals when we moved, helped us move, and even threw a baby shower for me when they found out I was pregnant! We've been overwhelmed by the genuine love and support we've received since the first day we stepped through those doors.
Perhaps another reason I feel more of a place at this church is because this is now Joe and Me. I am not the middle child of a family of eight joining a church anymore. I am now an adult with a husband (and a baby on the way!) looking to join a church. I'm sure that has made a difference in the way we have been treated and in the way I have perceived things. I'm NOT saying I was mistreated by our churches while living with my family--just simply noting the difference in the time and place in life.
So that's all for now. :)
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Regrets
We shouldn't have them--but we do. And most of the time I try very hard to either not regret something or deny regret about something. But there are some things I keep coming back to, and I have to recognize them as some form of regret for something or someone.
A regret that has popped up most recently is one concerning people--people I've met in the past. People I wish I knew better. People I wish I had become better friends with when I had the opportunity. People I may or may not have a chance to get to know better. Maybe what I'm regretting really wasn't a possibility anyway, but how can I know that? Of course, being in college meant I met LOTS of new people and made lots of acquaintances in a very short amount of time. Some of those people I kept up with and still do to this day (and it means so much to me!), and others I kept up with for a while, and then we just sort of went our separate ways. Part of that was probably due to our different studies (I was definitely friends with a lot more music majors than any other major). Part of it was also due to our different lifestyles. To be honest, once I met Joe and we started dating, that limited a lot of this one-on-one time with different friends--particularly those who were single. As any music major knows, it's very hard to have much of a life outside the music building, so you either a) purposefully planned to hang out with someone or b) hung out with friends by happenstance. Most of my planned hang out time was with Joe, naturally, as we were eager to get to know each other and hang out together as much as possible. Much of the rest of my hang out time was spur of the moment get-togethers with other music majors or my roommates. I still made efforts, though, to hang out with friends who weren't in my usual circle of friends, because I was truly interested in becoming closer to them. Even so, those hang outs were few and far between, and not running in the same circles sometimes presented challenges for us. For instance, a friend of mine might invite Joe and me to one of their get-togethers, but since we didn't know any of their friends, it would be kind of awkward. Likewise, if I invited one of my friends to one of our group's get-togethers, it would be awkward for them.
Like I said, maybe it wasn't possible to keep up the kind of friendships I desired with all of these girls, but I can't help feeling the loss of those friendships--or rather, the loss of the potential of those friendships. And knowing what I knew of them then and know of them now, I feel an ache when I think of what could have been had our paths not strayed farther away from each other.
Yet who knows? There are some people you drift away from, and then later you're reunited with by very interesting turns of events. You just never know who God is going to bring into your path--or back into your path. :)
A regret that has popped up most recently is one concerning people--people I've met in the past. People I wish I knew better. People I wish I had become better friends with when I had the opportunity. People I may or may not have a chance to get to know better. Maybe what I'm regretting really wasn't a possibility anyway, but how can I know that? Of course, being in college meant I met LOTS of new people and made lots of acquaintances in a very short amount of time. Some of those people I kept up with and still do to this day (and it means so much to me!), and others I kept up with for a while, and then we just sort of went our separate ways. Part of that was probably due to our different studies (I was definitely friends with a lot more music majors than any other major). Part of it was also due to our different lifestyles. To be honest, once I met Joe and we started dating, that limited a lot of this one-on-one time with different friends--particularly those who were single. As any music major knows, it's very hard to have much of a life outside the music building, so you either a) purposefully planned to hang out with someone or b) hung out with friends by happenstance. Most of my planned hang out time was with Joe, naturally, as we were eager to get to know each other and hang out together as much as possible. Much of the rest of my hang out time was spur of the moment get-togethers with other music majors or my roommates. I still made efforts, though, to hang out with friends who weren't in my usual circle of friends, because I was truly interested in becoming closer to them. Even so, those hang outs were few and far between, and not running in the same circles sometimes presented challenges for us. For instance, a friend of mine might invite Joe and me to one of their get-togethers, but since we didn't know any of their friends, it would be kind of awkward. Likewise, if I invited one of my friends to one of our group's get-togethers, it would be awkward for them.
Like I said, maybe it wasn't possible to keep up the kind of friendships I desired with all of these girls, but I can't help feeling the loss of those friendships--or rather, the loss of the potential of those friendships. And knowing what I knew of them then and know of them now, I feel an ache when I think of what could have been had our paths not strayed farther away from each other.
Yet who knows? There are some people you drift away from, and then later you're reunited with by very interesting turns of events. You just never know who God is going to bring into your path--or back into your path. :)
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