Saturday, August 7, 2010

Attitude

I had a thought today while singing in church. 
 We've just moved away from our church that we've been attending for over 8 years. At first it was a fun and welcoming little church. There were plenty of people our age and we really enjoyed spending time at church activities. Our church had it's little problems, but overall it was a great church to belong to.
But over the past couple of years we've gotten very discouraged with our church. The same people kept complaining and not doing anything. The same people were doing all of the work and slowly being burned out. Most of our friends had moved and we weren't feeling the love of children that we had hoped was in the church. It's discouraging to hear your children say they don't like church. Listening to song service was like listening to a funeral procession - so depressing. It just felt like all of the love and joy had left.
And then we moved away. I have to say I was excited. But before we could hardly get settled we went to Canada for a wedding. We attended a very liberal church there. It would be called a celebration church by some. The music was upbeat and the kids had their own special church with singing and dancing.
The kids LOVED it.
During the song service Jon pointed something out. We couldn't find anyone with a smile on their face. Here was the service that we thought would be fun and more uplifting and even the song leaders were looking depressed.
Today we attended our new home church for the 2nd time. The people there are so friendly. We've been invited home for lunch both weeks. The songs were the same as our old church with one major difference. The people actually sang. And I noticed smiles and pleasant expressions. 
I've come to the conclusion -
It's not the song or the environment. It's the attitude in the heart that makes all the difference.
So I will be checking my heart's attitude each week before I enter the sanctuary.

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