That's Life

Blog world! It has been far too long. Lots has happened since my last post, but I won't bore you with all of the details. For those of you who are reading this and thinking, "What? This girl blogs? Weird..." yeah, don't judge. It's just something I enjoy sometimes. And yes, if you go back, there are lots of pointless posts that you will read and probably wish you had the 5 minutes of your life back that you just spent reading about mine. (I was unemployed for a while there.) Anyways! I'm hoping to start writing about things with a little more substance. Things that matter a little bit more.

Tonight we went to our first life group. Some of you are wondering what that is. Well, it's simple. It's basically a group of people that get together and "do life" together. Adam and I first heard about life groups about two years ago. We never went to one because we didn't fit in with any group  kept coming up with excuses not to go hang out with people for one night a week. If I'm honest, that scared me to death (and still kinda does). After all, I wasn't sure I wanted to share my problems in life with a group of strangers and, honestly, I didn't care to hear about theirs either. (Queen of Selfishness) We are young...and married. At the time, we were 21 and 20 and most kids our age are not exactly Newlyweds! We don't have kids, we aren't old, etc., etc. Really, they were all excuses.

More than two years later, here we are. Finally experiencing our first life group. It wasn't as scary as expected. In fact, it was very refreshing. We're doing a study called "I Am Second", whew God really knows what I need hear! We watched two videos of people giving their stories and then we pretty much just talked about our lives and discussed different things (which, as 'shy' or 'quiet' as I may be, I did enjoy). Then we prayed and left. Wait, did I miss something? Where's the outline? I didn't even get to fill in any blanks or takes notes. That IS why I brought a notebook. Where's my homework? We don't have a scripture memory verse for the week? Uh, ok..

Then we got in the truck, headed home and it clicked. Life groups are about sharing your life with other people, or "doing life" together. It's about talking through what's going on in life and being there for each other through each situation. It's a time where you can be open and honest and learn from each other. It doesn't have to be just another intense bible study complete with handbooks, blanks, homework, and scripture memory verses for each week. NOT to say those type of studies are bad, I actually enjoy the structure of filling in the blanks and doing homework. But, I think for this season in life, God knows I need something simple. I need something that doesn't require as much as other studies I've done in the past. He is teaching me to live simply and showing me that I don't have to follow all the rules that we as Christians put in place to make ourselves feel closer to him by following. Just love God and love people.

My excuse for not going to a life group because we didn't 'fit' was blown out the window tonight. As I sat in a room with a man probably in his late 40s, one couple with children in 6th grade and 2nd grade, and another couple with kids ages 4 and 1, I realized it's not as much about your age or season in life as it is about growing closer to God with other believers. We are all at very different stages of life, but we have the most important things in common: 1. We're all broken and need help, grace, and love. 2.We want to know God better and love people more. I'm excited about what God is going to do during this time each week and what he is going to teach each of us. I can't wait until we meet again next week. 5:30. If you're interested, you should come. We'd love to "do life" with you!