chasing natalie

New church experience

It was great. The worship was beautiful and interactive, the message was creative and inspired. The service programming was smooth and the environments were warm and welcoming.

Service starts out with a couple of lively worship songs for the whole family and the kids are prayed over and they go into their own service in a huge gym for games, small group and then communion.

In the main services the body is lively and totally engaged in the message and in worship. Communion happens near the end.

The large lobby was beautifully decorated and it had a nice little bookstore.

The volunteer staff was friendly and helpful. They had all the usual pamphlets and bulletins you’d expect, but what I appreciated was the relaxed atmosphere, no hard selling of events or too long awkward greetings.

All in all it was a wonderful experience.

The whole time I just kept thanking God for bringing me there. He was faithful to answer my prayers and I felt His enduring love in everything they did.

Thank you northwest foursquare for a wonderful Sunday!

Blogging etiquette

Have you ever felt like you wanted to blog about something so bad but you weren’t sure how to approach the subject? How it would make others feel? How it would make you look in the eyes of the blogosphere?

About right now you’re thinking, who the heck cares, just spit it out woman! :)

How much of a happy face are we obligated to put on in our tweets and in our posts?

How deep can we get with the total strangers that read these pages?

I just wonder how many peeps and tweets out there struggle with issues they feel no one else will understand?

I’m pretty introverted so the chances of me opening up in this medium is unlikely, but I was wondering if there was anyone else out there that felt like they wanted to get something off their chest, but just wasn’t sure how to go about doing it safely…

If there is, just know my thoughts are with you, you’re not alone, and one day maybe it will feel safe to open up in tweets and posts about stuff that’s really bothering us the most.

Do answered prayers = added responsibility?

I was thinking today about a prayer I asked God to answer a long time ago. He answered it in amazing ways and I’ll forever be grateful.

But I wonder if sometimes those answered prayers come with added responsibility?

I had just gotten off the phone with a family member that God stepped in a long time ago to heal my relationship with.

The conversation didn’t go smoothly and when it ended, I had this thought… God answered my prayer years ago to bring peace in that relationship, and it’s up to me if I choose to maintain that blessing or cast it aside and lose it.

Thankfully I think the Holy Spirit stepped in and I decided to not take that blessing for granted and take responsibility to maintain that gift of peace God gave me. But it did make me start to wonder if added responsibility came with all answered prayers?

What other answered prayers have I taken for granted and let fall by the wayside without a second thought as to what God may be hoping from me or expecting from me?

I was thinking about all the avenues of life and our responsibility in each of those areas.

For instance, what if a person who owned a company prayed to God for good and faithful employees and God decided to answer their prayers by you working there?

Maybe you thought it was all about God answering your prayers, maybe He was answering both, now do both of those individuals have an obligation to God to live up to His expectations of a good employer and a good employee?

And what about the parent who prays to God for a child of their own or for a chance to be a parent to a child they’ve been separated from?

Are there added expectations if that prayer is answered to be the best possible parent you can be to show your gratitude to God for answering that prayer? I think so.

I’m not talking about life or death prayers, somehow it doesn’t seem like God’s character to expect something extraordinary from someone who prayers a heartfelt prayer for the life of someone to be spared.

It just seems like there’s lots of opportunity in our busy days to take all of our answered prayers for granted and never do anything extraordinary or even ordinary to show God how grateful we are for His faithfulness.

I think I’m going to look around at my life over the next couple of days and try and see the extraordinary blessings that surround me and try and show a little more gratitude. Maybe I can do that through humility or generosity or patience. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll know it when I see it and I’ll try to do something extraordinary to say thank you God for hearing my prayer and answering it!

What do you think? Does God bless us with answered prayers expecting nothing in return? Or do you think it’s up to us to show our gratitude through faithfulness, random acts of kindness and wholeheartedly trying to share our blessing with others less fortunate?

Or is it both?