a community: where we thrive

I've always loved having a lot of friends. I had groups & groups of friends throughout high school & college. I had a few really good friends, seasons of "best friends", but as I got older I realized who my true friends are, my real best friends. I love them. And I couldn't do life without them & I will fight for them & our friendship until the end. 

But community, that's still important. It's so easy as we get older to become unattached from community. We are no longer in school & we enter into this huge world. A world where I sometimes struggle to find others around me wanting the same thing I do. 

In school, I feel like everyone searched out for friends. In this busy world, I feel like no one searches out for friends. And maybe that's a bold statement, but when you go to Target are you looking for friends? When you go grab coffee are you looking for friends? When you are out to dinner with your husband are you looking for friends? I do not. 

So how do you make friends? I live 2000 miles away from my best friends. I've lived here for a little over 4 years now. You know how I met people? The internet. 

I've met several girls, Julie, being one of them, where we do Bible studies for the past few years & traveled to see Beth Moore. They've become apart of my community here. 

2 resources that I absolutely love are the Influence Network and Thrive Moms. Influence Network you can join & become part of forums & a community group. One of my absolute favorite things is that they offer online classes each month. They have been an absolute blessing. Thrive Moms just launched a network called Thrive Local. It is brand new & there are spots all throughout the US to join a community. And it's a community where you can meet in person. 

Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.

I'll be honest, I love staying in my home & not getting out. I am a hermit, a homebody. I just love being in my own home. But God has spoken to me on multiple occasions that I need to get out. He put me here in the middle of California for a reason. And that reason may be as simple as encouraging another believer in this community. To love on them. 

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them. 

How powerful is that? Come together in unity, in community.