Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, a new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17
Here we are, the Watts Family living in Atlanta Georgia now. Moved away from home, we are very far away from all of our friends and family. All that we know is no longer and we are forced into adapting to a new way of life. Life only with each other and the people we actively choose to surround ourselves with. It is a fresh start, a redo on life. New house, new church family, new friends... new everything!
First the new house, upgrade! We went from a dull, cramped, cape cod style, three bedroom, one bath, no dining room, no kitchen space home to a spacious three bedroom with a dining room huge living space, lots of kitchen space, two and a half bath, tall ceilings, beautiful, colorful upgrade! Yes yes we may be renting for now, but our quality of life has been upgraded for sure. We have a huge yard for the dog and the boys to run around and a nice quiet neighborhood.
Next is the new church. I was so excited about church shopping. Dont get me wrong, I was very sad to have to leave our church family, our first church family- Marshall Road Church of God. Marshall Road will always be near and dear to my heart, they will always be my first church family. With all that said, I was very excited to be looking for a new church. I mean think about it, maybe it would be a mega church with excellent programs for my children, or maybe it would be a church that has a coffee shop and several services? The posibilites were endless, especially because there are so many churches in Atlanta Georgia! So I had all of htese plans, wonderful plans of finding a new church family, but like usuall God had other plans. God had this little homey church already picked out for us called Faith Community. Almost identical to Marshall Road. Also a Church of God denomination and also very small. After a lot of praying, I was sure that this was the church family God had in mind for us.
What about friends? How would we get all new friends? In a city where we knew almost nobody? I was interrested to see how God was going to work this one out. I decided to let Him take the wheel on this one too. The first few minutes we were in the brand new city with a brand new house and no friends to help us move in, the new church family we were destined to become was waiting for us to arrive. They had arranged to be on standby to help us unload our moving truck! About 7 able bodies just ready to help with a hoe cooked meal! Seriously? Is this a dream? Somebody pinch me! Nope, its real! AH yes, our new churc family! Little did I know that these were the people God had already decided would be our new friends. These were the peolpe we would choose to spend our time with outside of church. Never before had we hung out with church family enough outside of churc to become close friends that would still be friends with or with out the church! And wow, what and upgrade!
We have transformed into a new creation. We are a family who spends quality time together as a family. A family who sits down for home cooked dinners together most evenings. A family who puts each other first in all we do. A family who doesnt live a sinful lifestyle at or away from home. A family who depends on each other for everything. A family who trys to be better to eachother with each new day. Now this is an upgrade!
