God’s Bride

Just recently I listened to a podcast that had me doing a lot of questioning and thinking about going to mass, listening to the gospel and needing it to always feed me. It was a very interesting perspective that really pushed me to think. In this podcast Dr. Bob Barnes talks about a situation in which he tells a friend that he didn’t feel like the pastor of their church was feeding him anymore. His friend response was, “Maybe it’s about time you get out of the high chair and start feeding yourself.” This was very eye opening for me because there are times I have felt this way. When maybe the point wasn’t for me to be needing to be served but the other way around. The church is God’s bride. The love that God has for His bride is something to be revered. In this place you truly disconnect from the world and spend time in His love with your family and community. As for me I know for sure there have been times that I go to church and do not get much out of it, but maybe it’s because it wasn’t for me, but it was for me to use to help others. Church connects us to our community and we are called to serve not only individually but also as a family.

When I was growing up going to church as a family did not happen. My mom would take me and my brother regularly for a while and then we would fall off the wagon; it was always up and down, and now that I have kids I absolutely understand how exhausting and overwhelming it gets doing it on your own. When I married my husband he set the expectation and the standard that church for our family would always be a priority. It was hard for me at first to make going to church every single Sunday a priority, because it was not how I grew up. But once we started our family, I am so grateful that we did. I am grateful that we did this before having kids, because it made it even more of a drive to show our children the importance of church and spending that time with God and to do it as a family. There are so many times in church and opportunities within the church that create the opportunity to teach our children about service and the importance of serving others as Christ has done for all of us. Dr. Bob Barnes said something that I am absolutely guilty of, “We are so time conscious rather than training conscious” that we miss these teachable moments with our children. Volunteering our time on Wednesday nights, being an usher in church, doing Meals on Wheels or another volunteer service or making a meal to take to a family, these are all acts of service that are an excellent opportunity to teach our children the importance behind service and why they are important as our roles as Christians. It’s truly amazing how when I teach my kinder kids on Wednesday nights how they can feed my heart more than I ever knew I needed. These moments of doing and giving of yourself to others gifts your heart sometimes more than it does theirs. These are the ways we show God’s love to the world. 

“My attitude takes advantage of teaching service or my attitude makes them a consumer”- Parenting On Purpose

I am not saying that every time you go to church that it shouldn’t feed you, but if you have lost your luster for church maybe it’s not the message that’s the problem, it’s the way you are trying to use it. Maybe God is trying to reach to you in a different way. Maybe it’s not just for you. Maybe it’s something that can help your community or a friend or family member. God will always try new ways to reach you if He feels that you are not getting His message. Maybe if you are in a place where you are burnt out, you need to change your view, change what volunteering you are doing, or change how you are spending time in God’s word. I really challenge you contemplate this because it allows to see things from a different view and hopefully it will encourage and help you. You’ve got this!