SPIN-OFF: College. Vs Marriage

[krazy_kurly]

My husband and I were talking about this last night, and the other post made me think that maybe y'all would understand...

I graduated college early (2 years early, I was 20) and got married right away; hubby's in the Army; we're now 22 and 25. College age, really!

Sort of. Twenty-something! We now know what that means! BECAUSE WE DON'T FIT ANYWHERE!!!

In our previous church, we tried the married couples group---they were all older, which is okay, it's nice to have mentors but friends my parents age is still odd, we don't need more parents!

The college group is of course not for us because we're not in college---I'm done and hubby's never been, plus it's weird being married with a bunch of single college kids.

They had a group for military families...but like on here, there's always the debate of whether 'Christians should be in the military' or 'should Christian soldiers be combat arms'...and that's not what we're looking for!

It seems like married couples our age either 1) have kids or 2) party.

*sigh* how do you find fellowship when no matter where you go, you're left out?

 

[paisley]

I suggest finding an open Bible study that includes everyone -young to old, married, single, parents, childless, laborers to professionals, educated and uneducated, etc. This would let you fit right in and these kinds of groups are really interesting because you get to hear all different perspectives from people from all walks of life but everyone is equal. Then later on if you have children you might want to move into a parenting group or if you have really connected with the open group, just stay there. I have probably had my most enriching spiritual discussions in open groups.

 

[jasoncran]

i know what you mean on that old debate should one one be in the military, if you need the counter arugment for why a christian can be in the military ask me, cause i'm in the national guard and have seen war.

all soldiers are combat arms first then all other jobs, the current wars have no "fronts"
the only true noncombatant is the chaplains corps.

 

[krazy_kurly]

Finding an "open Bibile study that includes everyone -young to old, married, single, parents, childless, laborers to professionals, educated and uneducated, etc. This would let you fit right in and these kinds of groups are really interesting because you get to hear all different perspectives from people from all walks of life but everyone is equal" would be nice except that our options are limited to the Chapel on-post (since we don't speak a lick of Germany besides 'danke' and 'bitte'). They do have specific study groups, but I just posted a question about that in the "Talk and Advice" forum, because I tried the women's group but it's so frustrating (we are child-free which is rare so that leaves me zip common ground with the other women, it's not a group where we share the same denomination which you know can make it difficult to discuss issues)....so yeah. I mean your advice is great...and I appreciate it But it's unfortunately not relevant here.

And yeah, jasoncran, you know it can be tough. Hubby's actually Finance and non-deployable (a whoooooole other issue! he hates it because he enlisted as 11B but had to go to the MEB and re-classed and feels like a dirt-bag soldier a lot of time, although really I know we're blessed in a way to always have had him safe so far). But, a young, married, child-free, Christian couple in the military...urg.

 

[paisley]

I live in Japan, and near the U.S. military bases are usually several international churches where the services and most of the Bible studies are in English. Look and ask around and you might find such churches near you off base. In addition, because these are international churches, the congregations tend to be small so Bible studies usually are lumped into "open" Bible studies for all adults since there just aren`t enough people to catagorize but certainly enough to make a congregation and Bible studies. When you have open groups, usually the study topics stay away from things like marriage and children since not everyone is married, or has children, or some have finished with child rearing and want to focus on to the next stage in life. Anyway, that is the way it is in Japan, Germany could be different. I know some of the military families here that attend the off base churches say they do it just for a change of pace. It is refreshing to get a change of environment off base but still be able to communicate so the international churches offer this. I encourage you to look around and pray about your options a little more!