30 Days of Gratitude - Days 2, 3, & 4

There will be a lot of gratitude in this post, so we'll let this count for three days to catch up with the day of the month.

I'm grateful for our church, Rayne United Methodist, for so many reasons.  It's introduced us to our pastor Callie, who has become a spiritual mentor for me.  It led us to starting a young adults Sunday School class which now has more than 20 members.  The Sunday School class introduced us to a great group of parents with similarly aged children.  (No joke, there were 7 babies born/to be born in 2012, 6 of them girls!)  The class was initially titled Grace Based Parenting because we started studying a book of the same name.  We are now reading Raising Kids for True Greatness.  What an awesome task in front of us.  We quickly affirmed that all of our parenting desires cycle back to what we are modeling to our children which comes back to who we are, what we believe, and what we embody on a daily basis.  We have read books in the Good and Beautiful God series by James Smith that were focused more on our own spiritual lives.  My heart has been undergoing a transformation as I've read these books.  I'm learning so much about what I believe and about God's love for humanity.

Through our church, I've also been participating in a Meet the Bible course that has met at times over the year, but which was a commitment to read scripture daily throughout 2012.  I've been in and out of the Bible over the years, but really did need to be reintroduced.  I struggled through parts of the Old Testament this summer (through a fog of new babyhood) but am taking so much away from the New Testament readings now.

My own reading has paralleled Jack's interest in his children's Bible (a version I only halfway recommend).  My mom started reading to him daily from it and he asks to read from his Bible most naptimes and nighttimes.  Be still my heart, it has just been the most beautiful thing to be a part of.