You know how I like similes.  I like to compare a thought to another action, or a complex situation to a familiar daily activity.  Okay, well.  I feel a simile story coming on here and the pictures have nothing to do with this post, but mean everything to me.  (Plus, I like to have pictures in my posts.)

So, we have been going to church the last several months.  But when I say 'going to church' I don't mean, just going.  We have been going faithfully every week to Sunday School and to worship service.  We have been involved in other church activities and Larry and I have even been taking a Marriage Oneness Class on Sunday afternoons.  We have been involved. 

I want to say that my life is so much better.  My outlook on everything and everyone is so much brighter.  My attitude is so much better.  My family is so much more connected.  My marriage feels so much healthier.  My blessings are so bountiful.  I am hungry for more knowledge.  I am striving to be a better person in everything that I do.  I am praying more and worrying less.  I am getting closer to God every day and I am loving it. 

I used to think that you didn't have to go to church to have a relationship with God and believe in him.  My thought was that I was saved and my relationship with him was a private matter that I didn't have to show to the world.  I have always believed and had faith in God and prayed daily.  I have attended church in spurts during my life.  I have always tried to "do the right things," though I have failed many many times.  I just never put "church" on the top of my priorities. 

 

Here's where my simile comes in.  To me, my relationship with God is like the wind.  Although I can not SEE the wind, I can sit inside the house and see the effects of the wind.  I can see the leaves blowing on the trees.  I can see the blades of grass waving.  Sometimes if it is blowing really hard, I can see the chairs on my deck move and hear it.  But just looking out the window, you just don't get the full effects.  If the wind is not noticeably blowing, you don't know it is there because you can't see it or feel it or hear it.  But if I get off of my rear end and go outside, I can feel the wind in my face.  I can feel it blowing my hair.  I can truly connect with it because I am there with it.  Just as my relationship with God is more real when I get off of my rear end and go to church.  I learn more about His word.  I talk to Him more and really hear Him.  I can see Him in my life every day.  Even though life is just as busy, maybe even more right now, I have made this a priority and and am really seeing a difference. 

I see now that my relationship with God is important for me.  He loves me and accepts me for who I am, mistakes and all.  I am imperfect and full of sin and He loves me anyway.  But I do owe alot to Him.  The least I can do is get to know a man that died for my sins.  Thank you Jesus!

These three girls are enough to be thankful for.  I thank God every day for letting me be their mother.  I hope to be a good example to them and show them how to live a Christ centered life.