Monday, May 3, 2010

A Moment with the Church Lady

My Holy Ghost writer is at it again... I sat down in my pew at worship yesterday and drew a complete blank about the Children's Moment, which was 10 minutes away. Fortunately, God smiled on me and encouraged my daughter to pick up the mic first, say loud silly things into it, pass it around and when everyone had a chance to be loud and silly, I had my moment:

That was fun, huh? None of you had a problem being loud into the microphone, even with all these people looking at you. Being loud is fun, isn't it? Well, the older you get, you'll discover that you don't like to be loud as much. Us old stuffy adults don't like to call attention to ourselves by being loud. But one of the things we shouldn't be quiet about is how much we love God and how much He loves us. No matter how old we get, we should be shouting that at the top of our lungs: GOD LOVES ME AND I LOVE HIM!!! We should be cheering for God, singing for God, praising God out LOUD!!! We're not embarrassed to let people know we love Him, right? So let's pray out LOUD!!!

Well, that was paraphrased, of course, but you get the general idea. I really genuinely do, some days, just walk up to the front of the church and hope for the best when I grab that microphone and sit down amongst the kids near the altar. I don't know ahead of time what's going to come out of my mouth, but it always seems to flow and make sense to everyone else. I'm certainly not implying that I'm speaking in tongues or that I'm channeling anyone, but I do walk up there with a prayer in my heart that God will bless me and whatever I'm about to say. That's the Holy Ghost (writer) at work, I'm sure.

As many of you know, Don left me last year and the divorce will be final the middle of this month. Being grateful at the top of my lungs has not exactly been on my list of things to do. But I hope the kids and the congregation got as much out of this children's moment as I did. God has indeed provided me with some very wonderful things, lots of things to be thankful for, and plenty of opportunities for me to help and be helped by my amazing friends and family. I've never been embarrassed to say I'm a Christian, but I've learned in the last few months that there's nothing embarrassing about loving out loud - loving everyone, and especially God. So if you're reading this, please know that I'm so glad to have you in my life, in my kids' lives, and

I LOVE YOU!!!!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Life continues and the friends and families will hold you together. You're in my thoughts Natalie - always will be. Laurie

Mary said...

Natalie....channel your inner barbell and be especially strong during this time of finalizing chapters in your life.

I am thinking about you-XOXOXOX!!

Hawkins Highlights said...

What an inspiration, hope you don't mind if I base my lesson for childrens church off this wonderful story....
And Natalie, God is with you and giving you the strength to get through this....just remember you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you....