Church Kids

Growing up we pretty much lived in church. We went to Sunday school, Bible school, youth camp, youth group, big church, kid's church, stayed late after church, waiting for my well-meaning but chronically late mother to pick us up.

It got to be a big joke...which I and my siblings were the butt of. How late would Austin-Lee's mom be this week? I still have nightmares about being the last student in the parking lot. Not really...but I do try really hard never to be late. On another note, thanks mom, for making an effort to take me. ;)

Now that I have 2 kids of my own, I'm loving the chance to raise them practically in our church. My husband is the student minister of a small country church part time, and our kids have both been born since he started working there. They've grown up around a lot of these students we work with, and love them like extra aunts and uncles. The extra hands don't really bother me either.

I was thinking, looking back on when I was growing up, that sometimes church was just a thing to go to, for me. It was where most of my friends were, so why not go? I didn't always think about it...it's just what you do. My parents did their part, lived it out, but everyone has to make this decision for themselves.

Church cuz you got to is no fun, for lack of better words. It's not what I want for my kids, or myself. I want them to know that church is more about who you are than where you are. Less about what you're wearing, and more about Who put you together. More about loving those people that just make you cringe, (you know the ones...) and less about being a pew-occupying mean girl.

I am grateful for the times I've run from the building of church, and glad that in that detour God is His grace (He uses lots of that stuff on me) showed me that it's not a building anyway. It's people who love Him. So even if I move somewhere they don't have "churches"...I will still be able to show my kids what it's like to be raised in one.

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