Happy With Myself?

COMMUNITY GROUPS



I've grown to really love Community Groups at our church. It's been great to get to know new people and people who I don't see very often, as well as old friends. I took my camera on Sunday night to our group meeting, hosted by the Davis', and snapped some fun pictures of the kids playing and our absolute failure at making marshmellow ghosts. SOMEBODY (I won't say WHO -Paige Mitchell) burnt the white chocolate. Much laughing and good times followed in the kitchen. And maybe we made fun of the burner of chocolate a little. What you are supposed to do is slide three marshmellows on a popsicle stick and dip it in melted white chocolate and add chocolate chips or raisins as eyes. The kids didn't know there was supposed to be white chocolate and they were excited to just slide marshmellows on a stick and smoosh chocolate chips into their marshmellows to make ghost eyes. Thus ensued marshmellow ghosty guys. Minus the white chocolate. Ahem.
There are also pictures of the second attempt at caramel apples, which was slightly less successful than the first attempt, mostly because I added too much water to the caramel (see, it's not just you Paige). VERY messy. This was not done at Community Group, but was done with a couple of friends from Community Group at our house.
One thing I love about our church is the concentration of the gospel in every aspect of our lives. It has changed the way I think, and when I forget, there is a good friend to remind me who I am because of the gospel. There is freedom in the gospel and not guilt. Of course, I am guilty of sin which is why I need the gospel in the first place, but I'm talking about the guilt of a believer after they are saved. Constant guilt - not doing enough, not reading my Bible enough, try harder... do better, blah, blah, blah... I am not enough by myself - PERIOD. I am Christ's child and He loves me. There is a work He is completing in me. I will live the gospel through my life. This kind of philosophy filters down into my everyday life and not just churchy stuff. The freedom of the gospel allows me to trust women in the church to actually help me raise my children and to have friends I would never have allowed myself to have because of our culture's insistence on the perfection of the "mask". I love that I can be real. Community Groups has been another extension of our church and the outreaching of the gospel. My church family is exactly that. I'm so thankful.