church changes

Our family is preparing to undergo huge changes in the next few months. It’s funny how Bruce isn’t even here yet but we’re already making decisions for him that affect every part of our lives. To fully explain our newest change, I need to go back several years.

From birth, my parents took me and my brother to church every Sunday and Wednesday. It was not a small church, but not overly large either. It had a great children’s program, there were lots of kids my age, and I had a safe place to learn and play. Rodney grew up in a very small church with only a few kids his age.

When we were dating, we lived in different cities, so we alternated weekends between his city and mine, and also his church and mine. When we got married, we started attending his church every week. It was a big change for me. I never really felt at home there. This church only has about 35-40 members, and 2 children. There are only about 6 members (including us) who are younger than R’s parents. I missed the feel of a larger church (and people our age), so I mentioned possibly finding a church of our own, a new start now that we were married. R was very hesitant. His grandfather had helped start that church and he didn’t want to cut the ties that his family had there. After a few months of me expressing my unhappiness, we decided to start going back to my home church every other week or so. It was a compromise of sorts, and we got to visit with my family twice a month as well. I was happy, but I told R that I felt strongly about finding a new church when we started a family. I want our children to have what I had growing up.

The first half of my pregnancy came and went, and I didn’t say much about it. I knew that R was aware of how I felt, and we would deal with it sooner or later.

Recently, Rodney has felt very convicted as the spiritual leader of our family. He is feeling the responsibility of parenthood fall on his shoulders, and he is stepping up and being proactive. He mentioned to me on his own 2 churches he would like to visit in the next few months. He has been talking to a coworker who attends one of the churches, and has been doing his research. Obviously choosing a new church is more than just doing your research, but it’s a good place to start. I’m so proud of him, and it makes my heart happy to know that he is choosing what is best for our family. There is such opportunity for growth with a new body of believers, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for us.