Sunday mornings

Okay people bear with me this is long and I have to be fussy and get a complaint off my chest. Every Sunday morning no matter what I do to get ready on time..... we are always late to church. It. is. so. annoying! It doesn't help matters that we happened to select a church that is 25 minutes away when we were "church shopping" upon moving here. However I do love this church and it feels like our church home back in Austin but on a much smaller scale. How could you not want to go to a church when your first visit the pastor's message was about Love and he stated that since he couldn't throw Love into the congregation he'd just throw fudge! Can I get an amen here?

On a side note about our church here in Canada, God not only transforms lives he transforms buildings as well. You see our church used to be a strip club and now it is A House of God. I didn't know this at the time we first visited, it wasn't until we had been going a month or so that I heard about the building's background. (my girlfriend in Austin was like, "ewww, I hope they cleaned everything really good" - Yes they did and they prayed over every inch of that space!) Anyhow I love how I found out about the church too. Not from my hubby's organized spread sheet referencing all willow creek affiliated churches in the area. We had tried a couple other places that weren't a good fit. One was a transient church meeting in a school and one was just too formal for us. Last June I happened upon a garage sale around the corner from us at a local church and thought, "Wow this is 5 minutes from the house. This would be great!" But they were too charismatic and so not my comfort zone. As I briefly chatted with the lady manning the church sale money box about our plight of having moved here from Texas and our search to find a Willow creek affiliated church like our church home in Austin, she mentioned the name of a church in the next town over and told me her niece was on the worship team. Well I went home and googled it. It wasn't on our spread sheet but that Sunday we went and have been back every week since. As soon as we visited we felt like we were home. You see I had been praying that day I went to the garage sale that I would figure out where to go to church as dear Hubby kept saying "Where are we gonna go to church this week, pick a place please". So you see you can even find a church at a garage sale people, or in my case God knew this might be a way to get my attention!

Whew, I got a little off my original topic. But I love that story about our church and how we found it. Yesterday morning I was trying so hard to be ready and on time but it was like the adversary had other plans. Hubby started getting kids in car seats and I was getting the diaper bag ready. He said "Where are the keys?" I had driven his car the night before. I thought I recalled taking them from my purse and putting them in his spot he stores them. I tore the house apart for the next 10-12 minutes. Only to discover he had put them in his pocket and forgotten. And who is the forgetful or disorganized one here?!? I was beyond irritated and did not behave like a mature Christian woman. I am so tired of being late, dropping my kids off late to child care and missing the worship part of the service which is like water to my thirsty soul.

I feel like I miss the message by being late and distracted. However we made up for the worship part today as we drove to the gym for yoga. The kids were belting out Veggie Tales Sunday morning songs at the tops of their lungs! Where was my video camera when I needed it? These are the most precious moments I want to bottle up and remember always. And the message was there in the music for me too. "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God cannot do!" After I heard these words I reflected on how I continue to strive for the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I would just like to get the Love and self-control part down since they are the meat and potatoes part, seems like the rest is just the gravy in between and would go in line with those fruits. So I'll probably keep being late to church but will work in my fruit of the spirit and continue the worship in the mini-van because Lord knows I need to hear these simple songs and words over and over because the message is beautiful and true.