Friendships…

Friendships as an adult are a very tricky thing to handle. I think we as women sometimes take things out of context. We think that if someone doesn’t immediately drop everything they are doing when we ask them to hang out that person is in fact rejecting us… Or if we ask a few times and they can’t make it, that they must have been “blowing smoke” when they said they wanted to hang out…

But here’s the deal… when we were single, in our 20’s, or even married but had no children, things were different. Our schedules were our own. We were able to go to dinner or coffee on a whim. We were able to do what we wanted with our time. But having kids changes things.

It changes things in many ways for the good and many ways that are just different. And our time is one of those things that is different.

Let’s be clear, this is not one of those posts where we lament that motherhood “takes things away” because it adds WAY more than we lose… But lets also see it for what it is… different.

So we need to react different. We need to give each other grace when it comes to time. We need to give ourselves grace when it comes to time. We no longer have the option for dropping everything because our friend is having a bad day. We have to reschedule 10 times because we have these “adult” responsibilities that take priority over what we “want” to do. Kids get sick. Husbands pick up extra jobs to pay the bills. Grandmas need someone to take them to the doctor. Babysitters cancel (or we can’t afford to pay someone to watch the kids). Etc.

We shouldn’t have to worry about us hurting our friends feelings. When we became mothers… life changed, friendships changed, so lets rally around one another and UNDERSTAND instead of getting upset or avoiding someone because its getting tough to fit things into a schedule.

We need to be confident in ourselves and in who we are. So keep asking that friend out to coffee… I PROMISE… She REALLY wants to go.

Home…

Springfield, MO… oh how you have changed our hearts. Well really, the Lord has changed our hearts… We had the privilege of heading back to Springfield this last week for Josh to help train a few churches for audio stuff. So being here this last weekend has made me realize a few things about this idea of “home”.

I (Jen) grew up in Greenville, Texas and I LOVE my hometown and my home church… I loved it so much that I had previously been unwilling to move from it. I said many times growing up that if I could JUST take my church family from Family Fellowship of Greenville with me, I could go anywhere in the world! So when God opened the door for us to move to Springfield I didn’t have an open heart to another church family. I thought, “there is NO WAY another church could replace FFG.” (And it’s true, no church could replace that special place).

But God knew that He could open our hearts to love another church family and city…

Moving your whole family 6 hrs away from all that you have ever known is scary… I thought so many times that we were just ASKING for hard times by not staying in our comfortable place… But when we were crossing the Springfield city line with all our stuff in tow, two years ago, the craziest thing happened… a song came on from a #pandora playlist. “Home” by Phillips Phillips

 

…It was like God was speaking to me directly from this song…

🎶
Hold on, to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave
is stringing us along
Just know you’re not alone
‘Cause I’m going to make
this place your home
🎶
Settle down, it’ll all be clear
Don’t pay no mind to the DEMONS
THEY FILL YOU WITH FEAR
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone
‘Cause I’m going to make
this place your home

Exiting at #77 I was in tears. God was telling me that Springfield would be my home… And it became our home. This is where Josh and I had to “grow up” (yes, in our 30’s 😂). This is where we took our faith to a whole other level. This is where our wings grew. This is where we had to “choose” a church family… which was probably the hardest thing to do because I thought no one could measure up….God had to twist my arm so hard for us to join High Street Baptist in Springfield.

My heart wasn’t open… but God opened it and grew it! God taught me that I wasn’t “replacing” my childhood church, but that He was calling us to be obedient by serving at High Street. And High Street became “home”. We’ve come to realize that our definition of “home” has changed. “Home” is where we love and are loved, where we become connected, and where we grown. So “home” to us now is in more than one place. What God spoke to me at exit #77 was in fact true. He made this place our home.

One of our biggest blessings is that we have multiple “homes,” and now as our next season of life begins, we have a new church “home” that is waiting for us in New Zealand. It’s where we can serve, connect with others, and lead those that are far from God into a life-changing experience.