Day 9: Join

Everybody wants to belong. People search until they find the crowd where they fit in.

In my case, I tried joining several groups over the years.  My first experience was with the Brownies.  I had a positive experience and went on to join the Girl Scouts.

I briefly got carried away in the 7th grade and also joined an orchestra group and also signed up for baton-twirling lessons.  Those were short-lived endeavors because I promptly broke my arm and dropped out of lessons.  It is hard to twirl a baton or play a violin with one hand.

In 8th grade, we moved out to the country; and, since transportation was a problem, I gave up girl scouts.

I didn't join anything again until I joined the church.

That's where I found my people.  Those with a common goal and like-minded interests. We became a family.  Like any family, it does take some adjusting to find your place in the body.  We need each other. When one is absent it is hard to function.  We each have a job to do and when it all works like it should, we are a well-oiled machine.  In my 40 plus years of being a church member, I can truly say that each of the four churches I've attended over the years were a big part of my life and I have life-long friendships from each one.

My first church was a wonderful group of Southern families. We had quite a few teenagers who attended. While we didn't have a youth pastor and an organized youth group, we still bonded and had quite a few activities mainly supervised by a couple of parents. I have wonderful memories of that place and time in my life.

My current church is a small but loving group. I spend at least three times a week with them. After my family, they are the first ones I think about when I wonder who to pray for, or who to ask for advice and help.  I can count on them and they can count on me!

~~~

Do you have a church family? If not, please seriously consider praying and asking for guidance to find one.  We are meant to do life together.

This post is Day 9 of a series entitled 31 Days of Life on the Journey where I share about my journey as a believer, wife, mom and grandmother.  I invite you to return each day to find the newest link here. Myquillin at The Nester is the creator of the 31 Day Challenge.  I'm linking this post to the category, "Faith and Inspiration." You can also visit Kate's blog, "Heading Home" to read the posts of all the other participants of the 31 day challenge who are writing on her daily prompts for 5 minutes. Today's prompt is "join."
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