Psyched for Small Group

Life has been good. Lots of new things on the horizon... from beginning my pregnancy counseling ministry to enrolling in a new homeschool cover (where I'm excited to be teaching a class to teens on making a school yearbook!).

Billy and I recently became debt free (yeah... I really ought to have a better announcement on here than that little sidenote). He's doing awesome things in his career, Eve's progressing in some impressive gymnastics, and little Ashlyn knows how to use a potty!

But of all the things that have been going right, the highlight of every week has been Wednesday nights, when we go to our new small group.

Small groups have been my favorite thing about church for a long time. I like small groups in general, as opposed to large groups, so I'm sure this is a reason. But really, I just feel like so much growth takes place within a small group of people who can build a relationship based on trust and shared faith.

When we first got assigned to this group, I thought it would be interesting. We were the only parents in the group and the oldest ones there. We've always been the youngest. (The second week, another couple joined in. They have kids and are older than us by a couple of year or 2. Whew!)

Our leader is a 23-year-old guy with a huge servant's heart. His wife is pregnant. We have another couple expecting their first. The husband is a deacon at our church and from what I can tell is incredibly conservative. Then, we have 2 single guys who came over from a disbanded small group - an experiment to see if singles and married could actually interact in meaningful ways. :)

Then there's us. It's a random group. And it has been amazing!

I'm excited for the encouragement we've already experienced. Talking about living a Christian life, reading the Bible, serving our community. I've been in the Bible more since this group started. I've been encouraged to return to the prayer life I slipped away from after Ashlyn was born. I've been stretched to offer grace for things that aren't how I think they oughta be.

In all that, I've found a great group of people who I'm thrilled to be committing to for the next 12-18 months.

So... yeah... I can't wait until 6:30 tonight.