Community and Prayers

        "Community and prayers are the most important, physical thing on earth. God made us as a relational and caring people."

         You can tell I'm a College of the Ozarks graduate by needing community. If there is one thing I learned in college at all for life, it is that I need community in my life. I just recently had a repeat of what my "community" was like when I moved to AR. It was nothing. I had to look for all new friends, new place to go to church, and I hung out either by myself or with family. I learned that it is not only when you move but you have to make time for those things with your job too. You have to balance everything out.
           Now that I look back on my night shifts at work to back to days. I see a big different in life and I love it now. I also see who I am and what I really need. First off, I am really a morning person. I would rather work in the morning then at night. I hate changes of routine. I really need that tight community of friends and at church. It really is your friends that encourage you after a hard day's work. You can share your day with them and just blow up at them in a good way.  Taking your mind off of work and on just having fun helps big time. It is a relaxation tool too in a way where you don't have to worry about a thing.
           I have also learned that prayer makes you feel good especially if that is your way of encouraging people. I will tell people that I'm praying for them and then after I do so much is off my shoulders it feels like. I feel like I kind of a say, when I know I don't, but it just gives me that feeling that I did all I could do and it is something that could work if it is God's Will. I have been praying for friends a lot more lately since I got this new position at work too.
            I also think that praying for friends and other people is another way to get work off my mind at times. I mean it is good to have the children on my mind but not all the time like I have been. There are other people out there that needs the prayers just as much as these children and other children too like children of friends. It is strange how two simple things can mean the world to you and how relaxing they can be. It is those two things that I feel like I need to focus on now in this season of my life. I got the job and position that I love. Now it is time to move on to something else and work that out.
             I have another two or three things that I want to work on but I need to get my community back together where I can get the encouragement that I need to do those things. It is really sad and lonely without anyone to share things with. It really does get you down in the dumps and depressed. Strange how something little like a job position can change your whole life if you are not use to it. God made us, as a relational people, and we need to be that if we are going to be "made" in His image.