New Seasons

We've just recently started a new season in life and it's really exciting! About four years ago we became a part of the "Anti-Church" group, (I'm so going to wear the life out of that phrase now!) and left our church. So for a long time now we haven't attended really anything. At all. No dance lessons, or group activities or sports or anything. We go to a home group which we love, but all of the members are of an older generation so while Kath and I benefit from their wisdom and input we haven't had any peers to connect with.

Now we do have friends, don't get me wrong. We have AMAZING friends and I love them all! Unfortunately we don't get to see them as often as we would like because they live an hour away and the other friend lives seven hours away so face to face contact time be difficult to arrange. Thank God for the internet! Haha!

Anyway, we weren't lacking best friends, we just wanted time to mingle with other teenagers and be a part of a big group. You know, youth group activities and that sort of thing. But being a part of the "Anti-Church" makes that rather difficult...

Until a few weeks ago when we had a huge family discussion, that is. Turns out Kath and I were getting more desperate than we realized. We had stopped participating in the home group. We just sort of sat around and listened, waiting for it to be over. Well Dad got frustrated with our lack of involvement in the home group and we were frustrated in our lack of involvement in society in general. So basically we all had desires and expectations that weren't getting met and it all kinda blew up in our sitting room.

Dad said we needed to be more spiritually focused as a family and that that didn't mean attending an "all youth event." He looked at me and said he was "detecting resistance from me," and wanted to know why.

I'm like, no kidding. Seriously, I was ticked off. I shot back, "what's the difference between an all youth even and an all older people event?" Now I am never outspoken like that towards Dad. I'm honest, but not rude. Respect is lesson number one, you know? So for me to blurt that out so angrily was evidence of some deeper feelings.

Dad just kind of looked shocked and at a loss for words. I felt kinda bad, but not enough for me to bite my tongue.

And Mom, wonderful, diplomatic, insightful Mom, said that the difference was that the older generation has wisdom that the younger doesn't, but that the younger group has similar experiences and can relate better. And that we need both.

So the end result was that Kath and I agreed to be participators instead of observers at home group, and Mom and Dad said it was okay for us to start getting involved with the youth group at our old church. See, we went there until I was thirteen, so we still know a bunch of people there. We have history. Heck, the youth pastor is my uncle.

Now we go on Wednesday nights and the coolest thing is that Kath and I joined the youth dance and drama group! That's the thing that I missed the most about church. Other than that and worship, I was really content with home group for a long time.

Leaving the only church I'd ever really known, (other than all the ones we traveled to with Family of Faith, of course,) was a really hard thing at first. It was one of those doors that got closed. But God used it to draw me closer to Him. I had to wrestle with some desires, but when I surrendered them to Him, things were easier. I enjoyed meeting in the living room and all the homemade food spread out on tables in the garage. I got a lot out of it and grew spiritually.

So I was really surprised when I found myself discontent again. I hadn't had to struggle with that for over a year. It cropping up again meant one of two things. Either I was just having a bad attitude and needed to get over it, or we were about to enter a new season.

By the sixth month of frustration, I figured it was probably the latter. My bad attitudes don't usually last that long. Haha!

I think I kind of told that story a little backwards...oh well. =D I write what I'm thinking and sometimes the thoughts don't come out in chronological order. So to sum it all up, God's doing some cool stuff. And I have the most amazing parents in the world!

(Oh, just so you know, Dad wasn't super ticked or anything. He was surprised, but not mad. And we worked it all out. He's so understanding.)