Home vs Church

Some Sundays are a struggle for me. I have so much to do on my one day off (Saturday is committed to sport) that I get overwhelmed. Winter is the hardest. Not so many hours in the day I guess.

I have skipped church the past two Sundays. And I'm having a bit of a guilt trip about that. It's really hard to juggle work, family, housework and worship.

I am the kind of person who needs to start the working week fresh. By fresh I mean clean house, laundry up to date, baking done for the family lunch boxes for the coming week. Everything just feels all wrong if I can't start the week this way, and if I let myself get too far behind I am prone to feeling depressed and completely out of sorts.

So sometimes I skip church to catch up. And skipping church sometimes leaves me feeling out of sorts too.

And I'm not sure what I can do about it, it's a real struggle for me sometimes.

On a positive note I'm happy to report that I'm spending more time with my bible now than I ever have before. It started by just reading a few pages in the 10 minutes I had each day waiting for Steph. I'm really enjoying it, and get a bit cross when Steph is early!

Community

I may be over reacting but at the moment I feel as though our community is falling apart.

Recently we have dealt with (or are still dealing with) the loss of three young people due to car accidents. We are also dealing with a spate of theft and petty crime which is not something we are used to. People are having to lock their houses and cars and we have never had to do that. I don't even take my keys out of the ignition (if they aren't in the ignition I will lose them!). The thieves aren't locals, and have been arrested many times, but keep coming back. At least that's something I guess. It's not someone local stealing from their own community.

And last night there was another car accident. A friend of Stephanie's (6 months older than her) lost control of his car at 3am this morning. He totalled the car, clipped a wall and took out two light poles. Apparently the throttle stuck and when he hit the wall the airbag went off which knocked him out and that's how he ended up crashed into a light pole. I know it was an accident. But there is no denying that alcohol was a factor and I'm starting to think that our young people are just. not. listening. He is lucky to be alive. If not for that airbag he'd have been thrown on impact (no seatbelt).

I'm very sad to say that we are becoming very used to the sight and sound of sirens, which used to be a very rare occurance. The horrible horrible thing about sirens in a small town is that it is very likely that you will know the person involved.

Lord, please restore peace to our little town. Help the young people to learn from their and their friends mistakes. Stop the petty crime wave that seems to plaguing us at the moment and help us to be able to trust and feel safe in our community again.