012Page Title or page information goes here

By Rachel Graham

For a couple years right after our daughter was born my husband and I quit going to church. My hometown church, from when I was little, had disbanded and the church that I tried next was not inviting or good for my spirit.

I knew that I would not settle for a church that didn't feel like a family, the way that the one I grew up in did. Also, it is really easy to get into the habit of sleeping in on Sunday mornings. While I was not attending anywhere I could feel the void in my life. My comfortable conversations with God happened less and less. I knew that I was not setting a good example for my husband (who did not grow up in the church)or the children. The Holy Spirit nagged at me and told me every Sunday that I needed a church.

God stepped in and took over in only the important way that He can. He used my best friend, Leah. Leah and I were very close in every aspect of our lives except for religion. She was raised Lutheran and had attended a local church in Des Moines that she and her mother had gone to since Leah was younger. She knew I was a minister's daughter and in fact, my dad had married her and her husband. She called me about the Bible only when she had questions like, "Does it really say this?" One day she received a letter from her church telling her that they had cancelled her membership because she had not met her giving pledge for the year. She called me in tears and we talked about how I didn't feel that was a very Christian thing to do and that no, not all churches operated like that. We sort of bonded over our personal definitions of what it means to be a Christian and what one looks for in a church.

I told her how I had been feeling that I needed to get my kids in church because it was weighing heavy on my heart that I was not making that a mandatory part of their lives. We decided that we would look for a church together. We tried a few and settled on Franklin Avenue Christian Church in Des Moines. In that church body we found exactly what I was looking for, a family. Leah and I started attending just the two of us and all the kids (together there were 8 of them). Soon, our husbands (who are also best friends) began attending with us and getting involved.

That was over six years ago and now Leah's and my families are completely entrenched in the life at our church. The payoff for getting back in the regular church life is that I have great spiritual people to lean on and learn from, an extended family, prayer warriors who love to pray for me, and very importantly my children are being molded into strong Christian people. My heart almost exploded the other day when my 10 and 11 year old had to write their definition of what it meant to be smart. They both came up with detailed descriptions of what it means to be wise in the Lord. In this day and age kids of all ages seem to have a sense of entitlement to whatever they want whenever they want it. This flies in the face of Jesus's teachings.

So today my prayer for you is that if you are not regularly attending church that you keep looking until you find one that is a fit for you. Even if you won't do it for yourself, do it for your children!