Invitation Leads to Transformation

I met Jeremy 101. And met them at that time I went to their wedding. That was how, you know, that was like one of our third dates. It's just seeing the transformation now has been incredible. It's like a 180. It's you pray for something so long. And then when it happens, you're like, did you really do that? Like, it's almost like you don't believe that God could do that. You know, and it's, that's what you've been praying for. Well, from the outside looking in my life probably looked great. I have a wonderful husband, wonderful children a good job. But inside was not wonderful. I I was searching all the time searching for the next vacation, the next car, the next house, the next. Restaurant, we could go try. I never felt content, I always needed something. So yeah, I was struggling. I, I wasn't happy, I wasn't content, I wasn't fulfilled. And I didn't know why. Because it seemed like I should have been, we used to go to church before. And I don't know that we were truly saved, then. But we put on the front, at least that we were and we tried to be better. And those times, but then I guess the devil just took a hold of us and, and her especially and just made her like a totally different person. I got to this point where I wasn't just agnostic, I was atheist. And it wasn't just that I didn't believe it was that I was against the church, I I was against it. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with anybody trying to talk to me about it. And if he tried to talk to me about it, he would get a not very nice response from me. And Mark had been like, just trying to get me to watch a couple of things. And I know now that the Holy Spirit was really tugging at my heart at that time, because he happened to show me a video that talked about wanting your friends and family and the people that you love so much to be saved for all eternity. And I remember that night I we were in bed watching it. And he had you know, he had the phone up in my face showing me this video. And I hit I hid from it. I actually physically got under the covers because I felt so small. And I knew that there was something bigger and that I was so small, I was insignificant, and I couldn't get myself small enough. So around that time, Jeremy and Ashley invited us to their children's baptism at City awakening. And I thought, which we didn't want to go. Well, I mean, I was. And it wasn't because we didn't want to get into their baptism, something of theirs. It was because we thought she would catch on fire. get struck by lightning walking. Well, we have to go. It's my nephews and niece. So of course we're gonna go I'm gonna support them. I mean, at that point, I'm not going to say no. So we went, we we pulled up. And I mean, I was so nervous to get out of the car that day. And we walked off. And I immediately knew that these people had something that I did not have. So we left that day, and I said, I think we should go back. You went to the class to join the church, and we joined and then we decided that we wanted to get baptized. So we got baptized, and I really feel like our baptism at City Awakening was our true marriage ceremony. For 42 years. I was very proud. I don't cry. I'm not a crier. Crying is for weak people. And then the first few months at McG I think I cried every week. But it wasn't like a sad cry or a disappointed cry or hurt cry. It was a healing cry, and I had a lot to heal from, you know, when you go to church, sometimes you think everybody has it together, but you and then you go to small group and you realize, well, we're all kind of a mess, but that's the point of this is we're all a mess and we need Jesus and we need each other. So being a part of small group has been just such a blessing. It's beautiful and wonderful, but sometimes hard and messy. See, and it's so important that you get involved in your church and get involved with your community. And I'm so thankful for city awakening, because they're my community. It's just been amazing. They're they encourage us by just seeing how much they've been growing. And I guess to anybody who's hesitant to, of course, we were going to invite them, but back in the back of my mind, I'm like, Oh, they're not going to want to come, it's going to be offensive towards them. But of course, we did the right thing and invite them so just, I guess, always invite who you feel led to invite because you never know what the Holy Spirit can do through that service.