I am grateful I was raised with a loving God, church, and prayer. After turning away from God during my teenage years, I knew where to go and what to do when I wanted God in my life again as a young adult. Through prayer, and occasionally going to church, I started to develop a personal relationship with God.

After getting married and starting a family, I knew I wanted my children to be raised going to church and worshipping the Lord. We went to church. We prayed – when we remembered to. My children attended Sunday school. I even taught Sunday school a couple times. Yet I always felt like something was missing.

I had contacted St. David’s before we moved to Ashburn 16 months ago. When I called, a cheerful, helpful voice told me what we needed to do to become members and enroll our son in preschool. God moved us onto a street where 3 St. David’s families live! We hadn’t been here long, when the women started inviting me to their Covenant Group. They told me it was a group of women from church who get together on Tuesday night to read and discuss the week’s gospel; and share with, and support, one another. That sounded a little fanatical to me. But they persisted. They kept asking. And I went. I listened to these women share what was going on in their lives. I listened to them share their faith. I watched them support one another. Week after week I went and listened to these women; and learned from them. As I did, I started to realize what is important to me and, more importantly, what my purpose is: to love and serve the Lord; to love and serve my family; to love and serve the wonderful Covenant Community at St. David’s.

But how do I do that?

I heard at Covenant Group to look at my calendar and in my checkbook to see what’s most important to me. Uh-oh, now I know what my purpose is, but there doesn’t seem to be much time for it. My calendar is crowded with other “stuff.” I decided that, instead of just letting life whiz by busy with “stuff,” I wanted to start to make decisions about what to do with my time based on what is important to me; and make sure those things made it onto the calendar. This, ironically, was right around the time of Commitment Sunday last year. I thought, “This is where they ask for money.”

It was a pleasant surprise to see that I was being asked to commit to my Covenant Community in other ways too. I committed to going to church every Sunday. I thought I went to church every Sunday before, but really it was every Sunday IF I’m not too tired; every Sunday IF I’m not too busy; etc. I decided that if this is something important, which it is, I am going to be there every week. The commitment card also asked me to commit to small group (Covenant Group) and prayer. I can do that. Then came the money part. Although we have always given money to church when the basket is passed, my husband and I, for the first time, made a financial commitment to our church for the upcoming year.

As I made these commitments, I felt more connected; and deepened my relationship with God. Some more time passed, and I felt called to commit some of my time to St. David’s, but now I had to figure out what I would do. My Covenant group helped me with that process as well. I felt a strong pull to Holly and the Young Family Ministry and, after meeting with her, decided how to start serving. I joined the new Bible Study, my first experience studying the Bible, which has been one of the most wonderful, fruitful experiences I’ve ever had. My personal relationship with the Lord continues to grow.

I didn’t really know what stewardship meant until Rev. Mary Kay’s “post-it” children’s sermon. Stewardship is to use and care for something that belongs to someone else. I also learned, via the post-its, that it all belongs to God - not just all the “things” in my life, but my time, my talents, and my money. Commitment Sunday, for me, is a way to remember what is important to me; what my purpose is; and to commit, once again, to those things.

I am so new on this journey. I have given so little thus far. But I have received so much more in return: a better sense of my purpose and trying to fulfill it; a wonderful sense of belonging to our Covenant Community at St. David’s; more peace; a deeper personal relationship with Christ; and a very strong desire for more of the same. I have found what had been missing in my life.