Some things...

I just really get to the place of not really caring about what anyone else says.
Other things just bother me a lot more over time. Well I really do care enough about some folks that when someone says something something inside of me gets really sad.
I know some folks who in the past have been a part of churches... Now they aren't and don't care to be and what bothers me about that is they are not connected to a local body of believers and have tangible needs that a body can help with.

I know how easily disenchanted with other people and Church that even I can get so I say this with great gentleness coming from my point of view. people can and do disappoint and hurt other people even in churches and people can get a wee bit burned out by being basically wrung out and overused because of the fact no one else is involved, and we all get manipulated into serving somewhere.We all have our private wounds and church is no different. some people including me have said in lesser language screw them. I work really hard at staying connected to a local body...
There are different arguments going around that talking about the Lord is the SAME as being in a church and growing. Simply not true... Although there are numerous scriptures that come to mind to support it,I don't have street addresses for them at the moment.
Some say you can have FELLOWSHIP at Starbucks, McDonalds... Well, I know of life groups that meet there but Churches these are NOT... Outreach spot YES.
We are in the process of getting into another Life group at the church we go to.
We believe it IS important to be connected and grow and have opportunities to fellowship and get to know people. That's where life happens and that's the type of environment we want to raise our kids in. Personal growth is my responsibility... but accountability and friendships help us grow more.
We mentioned that we were going to be attending a class so that we can do a public dedication of Daniel and they acted like we were so out of order for going to a class. Give me a class any day to let me know how this works so that we can schedule this public thing (we've already done this between Andrew and I). The class was great although it could have been a mere technicality , was a pretty awesome tool that this church can and does use to reach people to Christ.. We have no aversion to going to a class and learning new things. We really think the way these are done makes this even more special. We would like to add that we have both attended and/or had public and private church dedications and we felt this this format we were very comfortable with this.
It has been Scheduled.. and in another post in a couple of weeks I will post a date.

We have questions regarding some of the things involved which can sway us into having our public dedication be more of a private affair and more formal since there will be a renewal of our marriage vows as well.. We would love to keep it public. We will post back soon.
Andrew tells me I should write a book and those who know me well enough say the same.The jury is still out on this matter and is a matter of prayer.