Reverse Thinking

I found this through the Christ The King Elder's blog this morning. It was forwarded to them by a member of our church, Dawn Kropla.

I watched this, and as I did, I realized how well it summed me up in my teenage years.

I was born and raised Catholic. When I was 15 I was raped by one of my best friends. I halted and backpedaled in my belief of/in God. If he could let that happen to me, he must not be real and if he was real, he must not truly love me.

The reverse thinking came into play when I was 18 and started going to church with Josh. I had already started going back to the Catholic church with my Pipi while my Mimi was sick. One week I decided I would go to church with Josh instead. I was completely hooked on his church from that first week. The sermon touched me and I had an overwhelming feeling of belonging and understanding. I knew I needed to be in that church in order to live a happy and truly full life.

I started going to their membership classes soon after and when I was 19 I was confirmed into the church. We have only missed a handful of services since I started going at 18. Josh had stopped going to church before he met me also, and he says he was happy that I came into his life and got him to go back to church. My first church with him was Zion Lutheran Church in Monroe, MI. We came back to the Lord there, I was confirmed there, making me a member of the church, we were married there, we go there when we're back in Michigan. Our second church we attended was a mission church in Summerville, SC called Beautiful Savior. I never felt as close to the members of that church, but we went every week regardless and also participated in their different fellowship activities. We are now members of Christ the King Lutheran in Bremerton, WA. This church welcomed us and felt like home from the first time we stepped foot in it. The members here were part of the decision making process for Josh and I to buy a house and stay here after he gets out of the Navy (we took the church and the members into consideration when we were making the decision, we didn't really talk much to them about it, but just let our feelings towards them guide us).

We have grown close to a few members and I consider them truly a part of my family. There are others that I wish we were closer to, and it's mostly my fault for not putting myself out there and inviting them over more and asking them to go out with us more. I need to work on that aspect of my relationships, I also feel it may be because at least one of those couples doesn't have kids and we do mainly kid-geared activities. I don't want them to get bored with us or frustrated with us and our kids when they get unruly. I need to get out of that mindset and just go for it anyway.

In the end, I just had to share this video. These were my beliefs when I was 15 and the reverse thinking is when I started going to a WELS church. I am thankful to God for pointing me in the right direction without me even knowing it.