![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/234\/2011\/10\/church_1712470c-300x187.jpg\")
<\/a>However, at 11, the rain stopped and the winds died. \u00a0I decided to slip into the church sitting in the back. \u00a0When the time in the service came to greet each other, a young man sitting by himself reached over, shook my hand and introduced himself. \u00a0Assuming he was a member, I said, “I’m sure that you are a long time member here.”<\/p>\n“No,” he said. \u00a0“This is my first visit. \u00a0I’m a college student.”<\/p>\n
“Hey, if you’d rather not sit alone, come and sit with me.”<\/p>\n
He smiled and moved up one row to sit beside me.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I was grateful that I’d decided to stay for the service. Steve, one of the Special Gathering members said during a Bible study class discussion, “I feel love when I come to Special Gathering because I don’t have to sit by myself. \u00a0You know, no one likes to sit alone.”<\/p>\n
The young man and I parted outside the church. \u00a0By the end of the service, the sun was still shining and the winds left long enough for me to drive home.<\/p>\n
My church IQ is often a bit low. \u00a0I’ve been in church all of my life. \u00a0Nevertheless, I sometimes become so absorbed in my own thoughts, worries and concern that I fail to reach out and touch the people who are alone. \u00a0Yet, today I was thankful that the Holy Spirit allowed me to be in the right place at the right time. \u00a0As the young man and I shook hands for the last time, he said, “I’ll be back next week and I’ll bring my wife. \u00a0She was working this week. \u00a0Thanks for inviting me to sit with you.”<\/p>\n
Enjoying a speck of sunshine that peeked through the cloudy sky, I walked slowly to my car. I felt that my church IQ had gone up a couple of points. \u00a0Because I’m sure Steve, our Special Gathering member, was right, “Nobody likes to sit alone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I toyed with the idea of leaving. \u00a0I was uncomfortable being out in the storm any longer than I needed to be. \u00a0Central Florida was hit with a three day storm that became “officially” and unofficial tropical storm. It was originally called a winter weather event (whatever that means). \u00a0Later, because the winds were stronger…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,287,186,49,263],"tags":[21,688,699,726,299,715,701,694,6,700],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-faiths","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-redemption","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-faiths","tag-first-united-methodist-church-of-melbourne","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
What's your church IQ? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's your church IQ? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I toyed with the idea of leaving. \u00a0I was uncomfortable being out in the storm any longer than I needed to be. \u00a0Central Florida was hit with a three day storm that became “officially” and unofficial tropical storm. It was originally called a winter weather event (whatever that means). \u00a0Later, because the winds were stronger…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-10T05:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-10T03:50:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain-150x150.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What's your church IQ? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What's your church IQ? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"I toyed with the idea of leaving. \u00a0I was uncomfortable being out in the storm any longer than I needed to be. \u00a0Central Florida was hit with a three day storm that became “officially” and unofficial tropical storm. It was originally called a winter weather event (whatever that means). \u00a0Later, because the winds were stronger…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-10-10T05:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-10T03:50:17+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain-150x150.gif"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html","name":"What's your church IQ? - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain-150x150.gif","datePublished":"2011-10-10T05:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-10T03:50:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain-150x150.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain-150x150.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/whats-your-church-iq.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What’s your church IQ?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1835,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions\/1835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/oct9_cocoa_rain.gif\")
<\/a>It was originally called a winter weather event (whatever that means). \u00a0Later, because the winds were stronger than most hurricanes that have hit the Florida east coast and the rain was up to 11 inches, the weather bureau updated the storm.<\/p>\n