Top 10 things I wish I knew then... From my M.O.P.S. Speaker

So, I don't think I've discussed it on here but I've started attending M.O.P.S.  If you haven't heard of it it's Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers, and it's great AMAZING!  To sum it up, it's a small group that you'd attend at a church.  It's for... well, obviously, mothers of preschoolers.  lol!  It's a bunch of awesome ladies who get together once every other week and talk, eat yummy potluck, and have some prayer and motivational time.

Now I'm NOT a "church" person.  I don't preach about God to people.  I don't read the bible.  I don't even know how to find a bible verse with those numbers like "john 3:16" or whatever.  My parents NEVER when to church when I was a kid.  I only went in churches when people died.  Never even went to a church wedding.  My parents always said you don't need to go to church to believe in God and that's really all I knew.  As a teen I attended a church with a friend but we went to "youth group" while her mom would attend the normal service which really means we'd leave youth group after about 5 minutes and go get breakfast at jack in the box and then be back before service was over and her mom came out.

Church always intrigued me.  It seemed to be this close knit community that I always wished we could be a part of.  So once I found the love of my life and we moved to a far away Rural community on the edge of San Diego County, we met friends in the neighborhood who attended church and their father was actually the preacher there.  We attended ONCE and I never wanted to return.  It was SMALL which I thought would be better...  which may be better in some situations but they were all about DEATH!  Oh my gosh.  I never left anywhere and felt so depressed in my life.  All they talked about was how they can't wait to die because life is so horrible and heaven is so great....  HELLO???  Was I the only one who wanted to make THIS life better.... to make my NOW, my SELF better? 

So, we moved back to my childhood home, built by my parents when I was 1 year old.  It's been almost 2 years now we've been here.  We decided to attend the LARGE local church.  Skyline.  We did enjoy it.  I get all tingly when I'm there.  I feel like god is with me.  Maybe it's the overwhelming amount of positive, hopeful, spiritual energy in the room.  Although I liked it I didn't attend again, we just got busy, we do a lot of camping on the weekends and it's just hard to make time some weekends and get motivated to GO!

So, about a year since the last time we attending takes us to now.

I met an amazing woman.  She is another mom from my sons class.  She works at Skyline, as well as her husband.  Her name is Ty.  I had talked to her a tiny bit about church here and there and mentioned we were interested in possibly attending.  She is absolutely one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and of course her husband is great too.

So, Another mom in Aiden's class, Mendy asked about Mops.  Of course I asked...  what's Mops?  Of course they explained it to me.  Mendy had attended M.O.P.S. at a previous church and LOVED it.  So, after we got the information, she asked me to go with her.  We also invited another friend with us, another mom from school named Alex.  We're all pretty close.  Ty even attended with us.

So, we went on Wednesday and I fell in Love.  The people, the feeling, the atmosphere, the positive conversation, the lesson, the conversation. 

We got food, sat down, met out table mates "The Painted Ladies" which we will be sitting with for the remainder of the season.  We met everyone who of course was nice and very welcoming.

We had prayer and then we all sat down for a guest speaker. 

She emailed us the outline of what she explained to us and I'd love to share it with you.  It was her top 10 things she which she knew then.  She is retired and has grandchildren and basically went over things she wished she would have done differently.....

#10  I wish I had been more fun-loving

I think I have this one under control.  I think I could do more....  Jared and I decided we want to explore San Diego more on the weekends instead of sitting in the house, especially with spring and summer around the corner.  We want to take advantage of San Diego.  Both of us were born and raised here and there's still SO MANY places we've never really explored.  

 #9   I wish I hadn’t been so (for lack of a better word) “anal”

        Meaning rigid, meticulous, overly organized

This one hit me.  Her example was your children want to play with you and you say "I can't, I'm doing the dishes."  The dishes will be there in 20 minutes!  I do this ALL the time.  Honestly after this meeting it made me realize exactly how much I do it.  I've already changed on that one and I've made an effort to give the kids more attention, particularly when they ask me. 

 #8   I wish I had found a hobby and stuck with it

I do a little bit of everything but I do want to get more into things.  I love photography but lately I've also had a strong desire to learn to sew.  I want to sew cloth diapers for our next little bay-bay! :D

 #7   I wish I had read more for pleasure

Let me tell you, unless it's a magazine or website I don't read it!  lol!  But there was a time when I did... it was before children and before the husband and I loved it.  I'll definitely get into it again. 

 #6   I wish I had taken time out for me

 

I do this but when we have more extra cash I'd like to do more....  a pedicure or a massage... something like that.  Not just time on the computer, not just along time cleaning house!  lol  When the boys go with my ex though and the hubby has to work I definitely lay on the couch and watch my lifetime movies!  lol

 #5   I wish I had been more deliberate about building girl friend relationships

I used to not really care about this.  I've realized since Aiden entered Kindergarten how important this is.  Since all the kinder moms have to walk the kids in and out of school we have to be together a lot.  We talk a lot, our kids love eachother, we have playdates, we do coffee.  Now when I don't see them I actually miss them and talking to them.  I never realized how important female relationships were to me.  Now I couldn't be without them.  QUALITY female friends.  Not users, not negative people, not people who judge or criticize, just females that are there for YOU, who love you for who you are.  

 #4   I wish I had been more proactive in building character traits in our children and also helped them to find their special talents/giftings

I also love this one.  My children LOVE to be creative and it used to drive me nuts... the mess of paint, markers, glitter, paper scraps... ugh.  But now every day I make creative time.  Today for example, Nolyn had two large stick he wanted to make a "kite" out of...  not that it would fly cause they were rather large heavy sticks, but I busted out the masking tape and construction paper and we make a kite that was as tall as them, they colored on it with markers and they LOVE it!  more than their expensive toys!  lol

 #3   I wish I had been more attentive to my relationship with my husband

My husband is very "needy" when it comes to me.  Not that he needs me to do everything although I do a lot (but he works a 40+ hour job and I do not so I can't complain), but if he doesn't get a lot of attention from me he definitely gets upset.  He thinks something's wrong, he thinks I don't love him, he thinks he's not good enough... ugh.  lol!  Some days I'm just moody and don't feel like talking and stuff but I've been more focused on sending him lots of good text messages while he's at work during the day and really staying off the computer for the most part...  except of course for this post cause it's taking forever cause I won't shut up!  lol  I make it a point to make "him" time.

 #2   I wish I had known about the Love Languages for my husband, children and also for myself

I don't really have much to say about this one we didn't touch on it a ton.

 #1   When my kids were younger I wish I had focused more consistent time with God

This was a biggie for me also.  This is why we've decided to attend church on Sundays and I attend M.O.P.S. every other wedensday.  It's also my goal to help my children develop a better relationship with god.  Sunday School will help with that and I'd also like to help my children start learning about prayer.

I honestly can not wait for the next meeting and I plan on doing a sort of recap the meetings and what I get out of them here.  

I must say I'm excited about my new closer relationship to God and excited to see where it leads and what doors it opens.