My husband and I were having an interesting conversation today about "fitting in" with a church, and feeling a part of it.  With the fast-paced world we live in, it's hard to develop close friendships.  At least it is for my husband and me.  Add that to the fact that we are very unique individuals that don't seem to fit in anywhere.  In some circles, that means strange or weird.  When I say unique (or strange or weird), I don't mean the public school crowd look at us and think we are weird.  I mean that fellow Christians think we are weird, homeschoolers think we are weird, Christian homeschoolers think we are weird.  I can honestly say that God definitely broke the mold after creating us.  I relish in being me.  My husband relishes being him.  We aren't at all afraid of being different.  We take the command of being a peculiar people to a new height.  LOL.  We have met very few like-minded individuals where we live.  We don't fit the "cookie cutter Christian" facade that so many others do.  We don't want to be like the world, or even "cookie cutters".  We want to be ourselves because we know that God loves us the way we are.  However, being ourselves makes us a bit lonely.  Not that we want to be with other people all the time, but it would be nice if people didn't try to give us a large berth at church.  We find more acceptance from Pagans.  That's weird because we aren't one bit Pagan.  We are Bible-believing, Christ-loving people.  We believe in the females of the family having long hair, and that dresses aren't dresses unless they go down past the knee, or down to the ankle.  We believe in modesty.  We believe that the Bible, in its entirety, is the spoken Word of God.  We believe that God created the universe in 6 literal days.  We believe that God is a creative God, and that because we are made in His image, that we should be creative in the arts.  We don't believe in copying society.  That includes what we watch, what we wear, and what we do.

I realize that we don't go to church to make friends, but to worship the LORD.  However, wouldn't it be nice if we could find a church that welcomed us, accepted us, and befriended us--but at the same time, wasn't watering down the Word of God, or being completely heretical?  I guess that's where we are now: pick a church that believes and preaches the Word of God unadulterated, or go somewhere that completely accepts us.  That's an easy choice for us, but one that leaves us a bit "unfellowshipped".

Valerie the Weirdo Who Is Tired of Being Hurt by Fellow Laborers