Yesterday we celebrated the 5 year birthday of True Life Church. At our potluck celebration, the church community thanked Chris and me and prayed over us and for the continuation of our journey. As we stood up there, I couldn't help but think about how grateful I am for this community, and how I should be the one thanking them rather than the other way around.

I grew up loving Jesus and loving church, but not really having a community around me that exemplified what the church should be. This wasn't because my own church lacked, but more because I kept a distance and I didn't have close relationships with people who truly valued the church body.

As I got older, into my teens and college years, I was someone who transferred from church to church. I would always be heavily impacted by the message I heard, but I would find a reason to try somewhere new after a brief season, usually somewhere that was closer to home or that fit better with my schedule.

True Life Church is the first church where I have remained for an extended period of time and have really become part of the body... and in that I have been so blessed. The church was launched when we had a 1-year old daughter. Now we have 3 daughters and I can't imagine raising them without our community. Our girls are continually taught and molded by people who love them. I'm surrounded by mentor moms who have been through this stage already, who are eager to support me in this stage. My children are friends with other children who are being raised up to know Jesus. And I'm offered grace each week when we show up for service with unmatching socks and unbrushed hair.

I am not a great host. I can only imagine the hilarious conversations people have about having dinner at our home. We hosted a family one night and we had to scramble to find enough forks for dinner. The next week we had 3 different people drop off forks for us. We now have a bin of extras in our cabinet that we haven't even used yet. A couple weeks later we had someone drop off cups, after we served drinks in kids' sippy cups. We were gifted a new washing machine, so many gifts for ourselves, and more clothes and toys for our children than we ever could have asked for. Folks from our church body have fixed our cars, our toilet, our dryer, our heat, our computers, our printers, and more. In both difficult and good times, there have been so many phone calls, text messages, and meals dropped off to us. I could go on and on.

The people in our church continually thank Chris and me but I can't imagine where we would be without True Life Church. It's not a perfect church full of perfect people. We are continually working on issues, conflicts, and misunderstandings. But I think we are really good at loving one another. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." It is undeniable that I'm surrounded by disciples of Jesus, because of the way I have been loved by this community.