Family of God

Ever since Andy and I have decided to let the Lord change our life, my mind continues to drift into new ideas (or old actually) of what the family of God should really look like. Passages from the book of Acts have been on the forefront of our thoughts and dreams as we embark on our journey to become the least.
Most of you know that Tim and Jenn Fidanzo have decided to join us in this adventure. They will become a part of our family. We will be in separate RVs but for the most part we will be together, working, serving, eating, hanging out, sharing chores, and battling in the Spirit together. I can't tell you how horrifying and exciting that sounds to me. We all know that our families know all the little things about us that make us human and imperfect. But for some reason, thinking about having someone outside of our immediate family seeing me flip out over weird things or just plain have a bad attitude is a little scary to me. And as a mother, I find myself cringing at the idea of having someone else besides my husband, see me be a normal, sin-natured mother. Yikes!! Sometimes that can get a little awkward and wrong, to be honest.
But it excites me for the same reasons. To be known is a very personal thing. God is the only one to know us fully (thank you!), but He wants us to have others know us and find joy in that. So, how do we do that in a world that has garage door openers and machines to communicate things for us? Well, I guess one way is to travel together in small confined places, like RVs. That is one way to spend quality time together, huh? I guess in this world of convenience you really have to go out of your way to actually get to know someone. This is what I am finding.
I am excited to have Tim and Jenn become part of our family because I know they are committed and they understand we are far from perfect. I'm excited to have help doing regular things throughout the day, it makes chores easier and more fun. I'm excited for my kids to learn from other adults and feel truly loved by them. I'm excited to have 2 more brains thinking about what needs to be done or imagining things that could be done. Putting our heads together, what a novel thought? Granted, I like to be right, but it is nice to hear of other ways of doing things. And by the way, we'll need prayer- I think all 4 of us are a bit on the "strong-willed"side. Lots to learn....
Sometimes I think the Lord is sending us out just to figure this "family of God" thing out. To find out what it truly means to love one another. When I say "family of God", I'm meaning fellow Christians/believers/followers of Jesus. In the church of Acts, "the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in thier homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."(Acts 2:44-47) Something about that made people want to be with them. I can imagine if I saw a huge group of people loving each other, sharing their lives with one another, and praising God with glad and sincere hearts I would want to drop what I was doing and join them. They will know you are Christians by your love.
It's easy to love people when you don't have to live with them. But are you truly loving them? I know what Andy, me, Tim and Jenn are doing is a little extreme to some of you and no, we don't think everyone should up and do the same thing. I'm assuming we will have a few, if not many, disagreements, squabbles, spats, fights, whatever you want to call them. But I'm praying that we will have the perseverance and courage to love one another through those. To know someone is to love someone. This takes God stepping in, shining a mirror in your face every once in a while, and reminding you of how much you are loved by Him. Honestly, I'm not sure how I will do with this. I've learned a lot for a 29 year old, but my goodness, I pray for my mind to be opened to the vastness of God as I jump into living in community. We will all need it.