This past weekend, Chris did his final series on Oikos. He talked about the importance of embracing the circle of people that are in your life. The group of friends, family, and neighbors you are surrounded by aren't by mistake. Rather, as some people put it, you might be the "only Jesus they ever see."
I totally take this opportunity way too lightly. I guess my main struggle would be that I stay at home with Mckinley, so I feel like my "circle" is limited. However, after doing some thinking, I realized that the Lord has still placed so many people in my life for a very specific reason. However, I also realized that I need to be more intentional about making use of the opportunities that He entrusts me with. I am so thankful for reminders from the Lord.
On a much lighter note, I think that I experienced one of the most embarrassing moments in my life this past weekend. My face probably looked identical to the picture of Mckinley. So, I thought it was an appropriate illustration for the story. So, the service was about to end, and I knew that I had some cash I wanted to place in the offering box. I had Mckinley in my lap, and so I reached for my purse. I dug around until I found my extremely large black expand a file that encases all of my cash for the month. I always put my tithe money in the very front pocket. So, without really looking at what I was grabbing, I reached into what I thought was the very first pocket, and pulled out the money. The service ended, and I gathered up Mckinley, myself, and all of stuff. We started making our way towards Chris, and passed the offering box. I quickly took my cash, and dropped it in the box. As I was doing this, I noticed that there were several large bills that I was pretty sure was not in my tithe money. I immediately walked over and pulled out Mr. Expanda-file. That's when I made the discovery. I had accidentally placed our grocery money in the tithe box. Oh no!! So, I made my way over to Chris, and told him what happened. His compassion level equaled about zero. He told me to go talk to Justin, the executive pastor. So, I found him, and asked him if there was any way I could switch out the money. Of course it ended up being no problem, but I still felt incredibly embarrassed. I guess you could say that is ONE of the major downfalls of the cash-only system. I am glad that I was able to experience it first hand.
