Monday, March 10, 2014

Who's your 'nation'?

This is a big week for us. We're putting our house on the market Thursday. It's exciting, but I'm also freaking out a little. OK, a lot according to Allen.
We've lived here for almost eight years. I was just a few months pregnant with Molly when we moved in. At the time our motivation for moving was getting off the busy street we were on and having a fourth bedroom for guests to stay in when they visited (specifically my in-laws). We found a great house on a cul-de-sac with a big backyard and a deck. The kitchen and living room are open to each other which makes it excellent for entertaining, and there is a formal dining room that I've been able to use as our schoolroom for the past 4 years.
So if our house is so perfect, why are we moving???
There are two main reasons.

The first being that there aren't many kids in our neighborhood. Well, other than one little girl that Molly occasionally plays with, there aren't any that are within a few years of my kids. They're all much much younger, and I see the occasional teenager. We really want to get to an area with a concentration of elementary age kids so ours will have friends to get out and ride bikes and go to the park with in the afternoons when they're done with school.

The second reason, and the one I want to talk about here is, we don't have anyone here to really build community with. We are 1 of 4 houses on our cul-de-sac, and 2 of the other families don't speak much English. Being the white family with elementary aged kids makes us the minority in our neighborhood. This is not a bad thing in and of itself.
Please don't label me racist and never come back again.
We have a very sweet relationship with our neighbors, as much as we're able to. What we aren't able to do well is minister to them and invite them to our church. Actually, we have done both, but they finally told us that it's too difficult for them to understand what we're saying because of the language barrier.
So that, over the last several months, has brought us to a point of feeling the need to get into another neighborhood. We truly desire to be the "pastors of our street" as our pastor challenges us to do at church. When I hear someone speaking and they say, "Think of one person you know that you can share the Lord with," or something to that effect, I can't ever think of anyone.
I'm in this bubble where I homeschool my kids with other amazing godly people and I don't work outside the home. For many others in my shoes, they may have a husband who's in the workplace and has co-workers and company parties, and relationships that allow them to have community with non-believers. Nope. My husband is a pastor. I'm fairly certain all his co-workers are saved. Although there is this one guy……
I kid.

So that's where we are. I need that outlet. I need people I can build relationships with that will allow me to then share the love of Christ with them. So we're leaving our home, and we'll find one somewhere else. I know the Lord will provide the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, but we don't know where that is yet. I'm giving it to Him daily, and trying not to stress. We're stepping out on faith, and we know He'll be faithful to meet us there.

We are called to make disciples of all nations.
Who is your 'nation'? Your neighbors? Co-workers? The other parents at your kid's extra-curricular activity of choice? Are you a room mom? Do you take the same aerobics class at the gym every week and build relationships with the other ladies?

I'd love to hear who it is for you.

On a side note, I've set up a feature at the top where you can subscribe to my blog. When I post a new entry it will come to your email, so you don't have to check here every hour as I'm sure you do. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed week!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You know we're praying. And with no small amount of selfishness! Ha!