Moving and Losing

continuing with the same theme from before....

Around the time my third brother was on the way, my Dad finally got a stable job as a high school science teacher. This new job meant we had to move away from our beloved home in the Horseshoe. Moving from that wonderful place when I was almost six years old taught me the valuable lesson of not being so attached to the location of where you live. God many times has plans for you other places than where you think is an ideal home. As a result of the move I have never again allowed myself to become so attached to a place that I live. I now see moving as an adventure and I welcome the excitement of a change in scenery. I lost a sense of belonging to any particular place on earth. I now see heaven as my real home.
Another thing that came with this move to North Carolina was a change in friends and, more importantly at the time, a change in churches. It may have been because I was so young and didn't see any of the flaws at the church in Elizabethton, but I have never felt as at home in any church as I did at Elizabethton Alliance. I am still searching for a church family with the same love for God and each other that I remember from that church and still experience when my family goes back to visit once in a blue moon. Upon first moving to Morganton, my family attended a United Methodist church, but after the pastor died of a heart attack it changed and we moved on. Next, we went to a PCA Presbyterian church and ended up staying there for six years, although as a whole family we felt led to leave sooner, but had significant difficulty finding somewhere else to go. As it ended up, my older brother and I went to First Baptist and a few months later the rest of the family started going to a small nondenominational Bible church. I am still not at peace about being a member of FBC. Even since coming to college I have had trouble finding a church family where I felt truly comfortable. Every time I begin feeling out of place I simply remember, this earth is not my home and I should be patient, waiting on God's timing to show me where to go and what to do, only then can I be fully at peace. I know I need to be more trusting of God's great faithfulness to me, it is just so easy to complain and so hard to be accepting of all circumstances God places me in.
Moving houses and moving churches has had a large impact on how I view my residence on this earth, but in the end I am thankful God has seen fit to do so, other wise it would have been very difficult for me to accept the call to the mission field or even to come all the way to Texas for college. After all, home is where the heart is and God wants me to give my heart completely to his service and I need to be as flexible as possible in order to mold myself into whatever situation God puts me in for service.