Things to process from the end-of-the-year brunch for Bible study:

-Jocelyn is stepping down from her position in order to pursue a call to help the women of our U.S. region to have a voice in Christian publishings. I can SO GET BEHIND THIS. We are extremely underrepresented. I am even wondering if I should be one of the writers. (Jocelyn will probably end up publishing some studies herself.)
-Carla's husband is quitting his job, without another one lined up, in a response to a call to be more committed to his family and to God than to work. His current job makes him gone A LOT and they have 3 boys, one in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary. THIS IS SO COOL. I can't wait to tell Stephen. Dave doesn't plan on EVER going back to full-time work in corporate America, which is just an amazing thing to me. WAY TO BE DIFFERENT, CARLA'S FAMILY!! SO cool.
-Charis is only going back to work because her boss wants her to. Supposedly temporarily (right...). She doesn't want to go back. Not even remotely. This confirms my decision to NEVER VISIT THE FLOWER SHOP EVER AGAIN unless I am prepared to say yes, I want to work there again, as many hours as you need me for. Which may never, ever happen. Because bosses = guilt-laden returns to work for people like me and Charis. UGH.

My own thoughts from the study, which I didn't get a chance to share today, are about finding safe relationships. It came from the community section in Tim Keller's Gospel in Life. I've felt a lot of me-against-the-world since Micah was born, since we are choosing to do some things differently than other families. And then not only that, but there's everything going on in the world that dominates my newsfeed... It's too much some days. The bottom line is, I need to find safe relationships to talk through hard issues with, besides my husband. I love talking things out with Stephen, but then it's still us-against-the-world without other families speaking into our lives. I'm tired of relying on blogs and baby/toddler "expert" sites every time I feel lost at this mommying thing. I want flesh-and-blood friends who aren't afraid to have open and honest discussions. I desperately want that community Tim Keller talks about!

The last thing that I left with today was Charis's suggestion that we all keep each other accountable to writing out our faith stories this summer. I think that's really neat of her and I want to work on mine. She got the idea from Jennie H and I'm glad someone felt the same push to the heart that I did when she suggested it.

I truly have some great friends.

-Stephanie

Afterthoughts: Jennie H suggested a book club. This idea is interesting to me.

Jennie H also suggested a kind of art club. Savannah suggested doing art together at a separate time. This idea is interesting to me.

I still haven't talked to the youth pastors at church about possibly mentoring a young teen girl.

SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT.

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