Frustration

Thankfully this is not going to be a soap box kind of frustration that I want to talk about today.  One of the reasons we chose our current church is because they have Adult Bible study classes on Wednesday nights.  During the summer they have 2 "terms" and 3 classes to choose from each term.  We enjoyed our classes last year, and even though we didn't go to the 1 class offered during the school year (alone time, baby recovery, exercise time, grocery store, etc), we took the opportunity to attend classes again this summer.  The first class we attended was about families being under attack and ways to help build our families up biblically by knowing each other and improving our relationship by making sure our relationship with God was good.

The second class helped us identify our spiritual gifts (if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, you can take one here) and figure out how our gifts can be utilized in the growing/building up of the church.  Servants find a place to serve, teachers to teach, administrators organize events, etc..

Sounds like a great thing to do in a new church right?  Well not if your gift is prophecy!!  I am an introvert who sees most things in black and white and because of that I can be somewhat legalistic.  I am old enough and have been aware enough to realize I need to be careful and tell people what is right and wrong based on grace and love and not just yell at people.  Mercy isn't exactly my strong suit.  Did I mention that not many people have this gift?  This gift is not like the prophets in the Bible where God told them a specific

So now what?

I am not where I want to be or should be in my relationship with the Lord.  If I were, I would better understand scripture, be able to call out others' sin in a loving way, deal with my family better, serve my church in a way that builds it up in unity and help to spur each other on as we become more Christ-like.  As it stands now, I'm a (relatively) young introverted female, not completely in tune with God, gifted with prophecy.

Don't get me wrong, I see people breaking laws, behaving sinfully and say something about it, but not to their face.  I'm either in my car or tell my poor (and loving) husband about it.  I thought because I had rebelled in my teenage years, I might have something to teach teenage girls.  We were in youth ministry for a few years, but I never had the opportunity to share any of my experiences.  I'm a terrible speaker, so I would never be able to talk to larger groups of girls.

As of now I am just someone who wants to use her gifts to spur the church into greatness by challenging current believers to question their actions as their witness in an unbelieving world.  If you know how this plays out in today's church, I'd really like to know.

In other news...

Nathan is WALKING!
Julia is now 3!!!
School starts in 1 week people, 1 week!