One of the things I appreciate most abut where we attend church is the reminder of how the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ should affect a believer's life. While the churches I grew up in often gave lip service to salvation by grace through faith alone, works were always attached. Not that we should not seek to honor God through our actions, but works and guilt always seemed to coincide together, pushing grace to the back burner. Grace was often acted out as "thank God I'm not like that" (you fill in the blank if you want to). Even in college, while I was blessed to be surrounded by believers who genuinely seemed to seek the Lord's glory, there was a constant reminder that many people just didn't feel comfortable in the campus ministry I was part of. Perhaps because they felt judged instead of loved by those who should have been instruments of God's grace? But I digress, that's another blog entry for another time... today, I want to share some notes on community that were given to our Mom's fellowship by Darlene Smith, our pastor's wife.

Marks of Gospel-Community for Mothers of Pre-schoolers
(if you are not a MOP, they still apply in some form, I promise)

1. The gospel frees us from trying to validate ourselves through our performance as mothers.

2. The gospel frees us to admit when we are overwhelmed, exhausted and not sure we can go on. We don't have to pretend!

3. The gospel frees us to humble ourselves before one another, and seek prayer, encouragement, counsel and hope. We are called to bear one another's burdens, not preen before one another with our perfect parenting.

4. The gospel frees us from comparing ourselves to one another as mothers.... How our kids dress, behave, where our kids are in their developmental stages, and how they achieve.

5. The gospel frees us from getting stuck in a sense of failure, AND from boasting in a sense of success.

6. The gospel frees us from the fears of being the worst of our mothers, or not measuring up to the agenda of our mothers, or mothers-in-law.

7. The gospel frees us to know that our children mean a lot more to Jesus than they do to us. We can trust Jesus with our children.

8. The gospel frees us to give to eacho other when we don't feel like we have anuthing to give. Oh the power of a little encouragement! Remember, we have this treasure in a jar of clay... we help one another the most when we care for one another from a place of brokenness, not a place of strength.

9. The gospel frees us to call each other to 'gosepl sanity" over and over. We fall back into performance-based living all the time!

10. The gospel calls us to the joy and peace God's grace alone can bring.
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In case you don't know the Gospel, it's a simple as these verses:

• John 3:16- "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

• Ephesians 2:8- "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

I pray that all will accept God's gift of salvation through Jesus alone, and that we may rejoice in these implications of the good news in our lives.