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I've always had some reservations about having friends from our churches. A few times, it's worked, but never lasted. Other times, the friends turned out to be folks who wanted something - wanted some level of influence, or an inside track to complain, or something like that.
Rarely have I found folks who just wanted to get to know me, or us as a couple.
We may have found that. We accepted an invite about two months ago. And returned the invite for folks to come here - and they did. And we had a great time, played games, spoke some about our son, and were honest, and did not feel shamed. It felt really good.
We did not speak of church at all. Like real people, we acknowledged our faith, we prayed over the meal, and mentioned faith now and then, but not the institution, not the issues, the stress, etc.
A lot of things felt right. They were willing to come by us - often these couple relationships fall apart because it's one-sided - we may invite, but they never invite back, or we have been invited, but they won't come to where we live.
Being honest about our son - yes, he was in treatment for AODA, & in the 'place up north' that people from this state know about - and there was no silence, or even 'oh, so sorry.' It just was accepted. That was huge.
So, a good evening. Yes. Praise God.
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1 comment:
I'm so glad that you found someone to share with. You are EXACTLY right... it is almost impossible to find someone to be your friends when you are a pastor. We still haven't. Most folks in our congregation don't get us... and I wouldn't share how I feel about the weather... much less some of the stuff that we deal with in our family. Talk about a firestorm of gossip...
May this friendship grow... and bring you all joy.
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