You Might Be In Community If…

I shared the following list tonight at the worship gathering for Neighborhood Church. Most of it is mine, some is from Hugh Halter's blog that Robert shared with me once he heard where I was going with my list. It accurately describes the incredible community of which I'm apart. We've come along way since this. Thank God for His faithfulness!

You Might Be In Community If...

You have at least 3 people to call on when you’ve run out of sugar…

When you are on bedrest and a friend does your Target and grocery runs….

If you sit in the waiting room of the hospital waiting for a child to be born and you didn’t have to ask if you could be present….

Your child is born and you have meals for two weeks brought to you by friends and maybe even someone you don’t know very well…

If you have ever taken a potty training child to the bathroom, and it’s not your kid…

You don’t have any children, but at least five kids know you by name and would probably let you take them home with you….

You are passionate about a project and your friends join alongside you simply because they love you and respect your passion for the project….

When needs come up within the sphere of your friends, and your people quickly pool resources or commit time to help…

If you can send an e-mail to a few friends asking for prayer about a specific and urgent need and you know it will be taken seriously….

Your prayers are answered and your friends are just as excited as you are….

If a friend can speak to you with truth and love and hold you accountable, and you still remain friends…

If the Lord speaks to your friends words meant for you…

If you are suffering and your friends hurt along with you…

If you are rejoicing and the entire community is rejoicing along with you…

If you go out of town and offer your home to others who might enjoy staying in your home for a few days…

If you return from being out of town, and your lawn has been mowed...

If you invite new and old friends to your home regularly for a meal or parties…

If you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and any other special occasion with a group of friends…

If you have a group of friends who know they can call your cell phone or come over without feeling like they’re bugging you. (and you don’t care that laundry is still on the couch and dust bunnies are in the corner!)…

If you look at your weekly calendar and can find at least one or two times that you’ll be seeing several of them…

When your house or the houses of your community runs the social calendar for the neighborhood…

If the people you call for a movie night are the same ones you call for prayer, and the same ones that you find yourself helping others with…

When you are as excited to throw a party together as you are about studying through the book of Acts…

If you can’t find all your tools cuz they’ve been loaned out to people…

When everyone knows each others hidden secrets and there’s now a freedom to just be yourself…

When extroverts get to be extroverts and introverts can remain introverts…

When the question, “How’s it going?” is quickly followed by “how can I help?”…

**Meredith added, "when you are without electricity for a week, but you have about five homes that have been offered to you to stay in..."

**Susan added, "when you don't even ask your friends if they can be the emergency contact for your child's daycare."

**Ginger added, "when you wake up in the morning thinking about a friend's concern."

Do you have others to add to the list?

Preschool

My 4 year old, Adam, has started Pre-K this week. It has been a pretty major transition for him (and me). He's been attending a Parents Day Out program twice a week since he was one. But this Pre-K program is 5 days a week from 7:15-2:15. Pretty intense for preschool if you ask me. But, it's a free program through our school district and it's at our neighborhood daycare center just a few blocks from our house. I've known the director for a few years and want to give the program a fair chance.

Adam has had some bad mornings, but when I pick him up from school, he's very happy. I've realized that he's more of a Mama's Boy than I realized. The evening of Day 1, we were getting ready for bed and he said, "Mom. You're kinda like my best friend." Then he gave me a big hug. Well, I thought that was about the sweetest thing he's ever said to me.

On Day 2, we all overslept and Robert was already gone for an early meeting. So, we were rushed to get ready for school. Adam cried the entire time. It was tough to be nursing the baby, while at the same time talk him down from his fit, get him dressed for school and make him eat breakfast. All in about 15 minutes! If there were ever a time I looked like supermom, it was then. I think being rushed set him into a very emotional mood. When I picked him up after school, another mom told me that during story time, Adam just blurted out "I just really love my mom!"

Day 3, he cried again when it was time for school. This time Robert took him. Adam came running back to the door to say goodbye to me again. Later on, he told me that I had forgotten to sing "O Happy Day" which is a song I sang to him the morning before to get him to calm down. I forgot that I had told him "O Happy Day" was our morning song, while "God is so good" is our bedtime song. When I picked him up, he was happy and knew a few names of new friends. Later in the day while we were playing, he said, "Mom, I love you more than Jack-dog." I replied, "Adam, I love you more than Jack-dog."