Category Archives: Family matters

In which we discuss matters of the family.

Prayer

How to win acquaintances and influence very little

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We’ve been attending a church across town for about two years. It’s a nice church. The full-band music ministry was a little jarring after about 10 years of attending the exclusively a capella churches of Christ, but I’ve grown to enjoy it. And the messages or sermons or whatever you’d like to call them are generally much more thought-provoking than fear-inducing. The kids love their Sunday school classes, and Rockford really likes the pastor.

But there’s still something missing, for me. Community. Friendship. Fellowship. I just haven’t found it there.

I’ve talked about this here before (here: all the way back in 2008!), my difficulty in finding connections. And I have met a few people since then, but I still don’t know that I’d qualify all that much of my progress as more than acquaintances. Maybe I don’t give out a “call me, let’s go do something!” vibe. Or maybe it’s that I don’t take that initiative and call people myself? I’m afraid of rejection, I guess.

Anyway. The church. It is nice, but I wanted to try to find something on our side of town. I was thinking that maybe if we were attending church with people who lived nearer to us, then we might run into them in the community and something like Oh Hello I See You Everywhere Let’s Be Pals would happen. So we tried a tiny church near us last weekend. It’s actually a church plant that just started meeting in a community center, and three or four of the people I’d call acquaintances attend it. Those people were kind and welcoming, but I don’t think we’re going to be going again. There isn’t a children’s ministry or really a spot to form a children’s ministry, and Rockford and the kids gave it a rather lukewarm “review” afterward.

However! They started a Bible study for women this week, and I went. My new goal is to keep going and force them to befriend me. (Sad! But true! Unless I chicken out.) (And maybe it’s already working! I was invited to A Thing after writing this, but I couldn’t gom)

But, oh hey! This wasn’t supposed to be about my sad sack of a social life. It was supposed to be about this: I’m going to a Women of Faith in a few weeks with my sister-in-law. The events are all about finding inspiration and laughter and hugging, I think. I hope to come away from the weekend inspired and with a new resolve to get out there and find my people.


(Just so we’re clear: I do not like the Moody Blues. But the song popped into my head as soon as I typed the last three words.)

Family matters

Thirty-three

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Early Affection
by George Moses Horton

I lov’d thee from the earliest dawn,
When first I saw thy beauty’s ray,
And will, until life’s eve comes on,
And beauty’s blossom fades away;
And when all things go well with thee,
With smiles and tears remember me.

I’ll love thee when thy morn is past,
And wheedling gallantry is o’er,
When youth is lost in age’s blast,
And beauty can ascend no more,
And when life’s journey ends with thee,
O, then look back and think of me.

I’ll love thee with a smile or frown,
’Mid sorrow’s gloom or pleasure’s light,
And when the chain of life runs down,
Pursue thy last eternal flight,
When thou hast spread thy wing to flee,
Still, still, a moment wait for me.

I’ll love thee for those sparkling eyes,
To which my fondness was betray’d,
Bearing the tincture of the skies,
To glow when other beauties fade,
And when they sink too low to see,
Reflect an azure beam on me.

Rockford, you’re the best guy I know. I love you, and now it’s time to party like it’s your birthday. Because it is your birthday. I hope it’s a great one!