I'm Thankful For: My New Church Family

I have old church family that I love dearly. I just wanted to say that first. I am so thankful for all the people in our past. I am thankful for all the leadership we have been under that has helped to bring us where we are today. But today, was just a fantastic day with my new church family that I had to dedicate this post to them. I don't know all of them yet. I can't wait to get to know them. I actually came into this church with the mindset that I wasn't there to make friends. I was just there for Jesus. I even told God that and, well, never tell Him you aren't going to do something. We have become more involved than I ever wanted to be and I have fallen in love with my church family. I am so proud to be apart of this church and to serve alongside them. I'll admit there were a few times in the beginning that I sat in the worship service and just cried thinking, "What in the world am I doing here!" I just felt out of place, but in all honesty it had been so long since I allowed myself to step into His presence. It makes me sad to think that my problem was I wasn't as familiar with Him as I use to be and that was because I grew distant from Him. I hadn't drawn near to Him in so long. I just felt so unworthy and so ashamed and it took awhile to feel comfortable again in His presence, to feel comfortable enough to lift my hands, to no longer hold the tears back and let them flow from a heart of gratefulness. I am so thankful to this church for helping me to draw near again. I am far from where I want to be, but I feel I am far from where I use to be in just a short few months. I have Calvary Assembly of God to thank for that. There are times my mind is flooded with thoughts of, "What have you gotten yourself into," "You don't belong here," "You are just making a fool of yourself." But then I come into this church and there is always someone there who encourages me and they don't even know the battle I had been going through. They keep me going. I wish they knew just how much they mean to me. I am thankful to have been picked up, dusted off and given marching orders. We sat on the sidelines to rest for a season. I think that season had been over for while, but now we are back in the game and I am proud to be apart of this team.