Sunday

This Sunday was amazing to me. I haven't physically been to church in about 2 months. My job as a nurse requires me to work every weekend. Working every weekend provides me the flexibility to be home all week with my children like when I was a stay at home mom. It works for us at this stage of life.

I love my church. I like how I walk in and see smiling faces that welcome me home. I like how people come in with all of their brokenness and problems and there are welcoming faces, it's comfortable to be there. You don't feel self conscious. The labels you wear don't matter there.

We're doing a four week study right now on the one-chapter books of the New Testament. Yesterday we studied Philemon. I've glazed over this book before, once or twice, but never realized what an awesome message there was in it. We are not defined by our human labels...

LABELS: wife, daughter, artist, nurse, extrovert, impulsive, unpredictable, funny, divorced, mother, stubborn, short, angry, Italian, organized, loud, silly, bitchy, moody, selfish, happy...... the list goes on.

BUT... "In Christ you are better than your human label" those are the words that my Pastor spoke yesterday. Those words made my heart leap. It felt good to hear them, to hear someone speak them out loud.

LABELS FROM GOD: bought, pardoned, free, saved, beautiful, loved....

WHAT LABELS WILL YOU WEAR?

WHO DEFINES YOU?

(Thanks PCC for doing what you do!)

More on Philemon, check out this post on Brian's blog.