thankful thursday #228

I joined a new church about nine months ago, and last night I went to choir practice for the first time. I've been in church choirs my whole life, and every one of them have been so special to me, but not before this:

I dread being the new girl, introducing myself, the small talk, and all the other accompanying things generally painful for an introvert.

On the drive to the church, I processed these thoughts, and I was so grateful to have been raised in a family that valued church, and the community therein.

By God's grace, that foundation for me makes the discipline of integrating into a new local body, worth it on the other side.

In other words, the aversion to being the new girl loses, when compared to the alternative of not serving the local body, being an outsider, and missing out on community.

I'm not sure I'd see it that way if church had not been such a constant framework in my life for as long as I can remember, and I couldn't help but feel thankful and undeserving of that gift.

Is there evidence of God's goodness in your life that's so ingrained in your DNA that sometimes you just miss it? Go on, be grateful that it's there.