Going to church.....

My paternal grandparents, John and Betha Cleary, were devout Christians. I went to church with them until my early teenage years. I didn't really know the God my grandparents knew although I went to church with them, and at 13 or so, I was more interested in my friends and the such. So, I just drifted out of going to church. God just wasn't "real" to me. 

In 1999, my kids babysitter invited my kids to church. Something inside of me just couldn't let my kids go to church without me. Let's be honest here, my Dad didn't go to church with me- and look where I was: 29, a mother of 3, and so many issues I seem to constantly be swallowed up inside of an emotional roller coaster. I had NO idea that my "issues" stemmed from the fact that I did not know this "God"- they were really "spiritual issues"- the lack of having a spirit alive to God. I was really spiritually dead, trying to fill the needs God created me with, with this world, instead of allowing Him to fill only what He can fill. In short, I was a mess. 

So, I went to this little church, that just loved on my kids. And they loved on me. I listened. Jesus began to speak into my heart. I bought a Bible and began to read it. In March of 2000 I knelt on my bedroom floor and said something like this, "Jesus, I don't really know You. I'm not even sure what I'm doing right now. All I know, is my heart is aching in me and I don't know what to do about it. Please forgive all my sin and come into my heart. Make me clean. I can't keep going on like this. I just know You are the only One that can do anything about this. I love You and thank You."

As the months started to pass and I kept going to the little church with my kids- I began to sense SOMETHING REALLY DID HAPPEN THAT MARCH MORNING! I was different. I have been on the greatest and best journey of my life since then, this journey in Jesus!!!!

Friends, your time is now, too. God is always standing ready to reveal Himself to you. That friend or babysitter or whomever invited you to go to church with them, GO. The best place, for me, in the beginning to get to KNOW, this God, Jesus- was in church. Being with those that spoke Truth into me through preaching, teaching, laughing, praying, fellowship, worship- many many ways. 

And I'm sure if you asked my Dad, he would say, "I'd give anything if I could go back again and take ALL MY GIRLS to church." Because if my Dad had took me to church- and REALLY KNEW JESUS, I wouldn't have waited so long to know Him and my kids would have known Him from the time they were conceived. My early years and their early years would have looked A LOT different. 

Don't live your life waiting until you are 66 (like my Dad) to really know and live in this Jesus. Real and true Life. Because the life you live without Him- it's isn't really life at all. It's empty filler until you die- and then what?