Feeling Awkward and Uncomfortable at Church and Church Activities

This has been something I've been pondering lately and I feel the tug to share of my own thoughts and experiences on it. I've read a few blog posts out there about those who feel uncomfortable at church. Like they don't fit into the "cookie cutter mormon woman" mold. Of course it's always an uplifting read because at the end they start to relay their own personal journey and testimony of the church and what keeps them there. I love it when people share their stories.

This is my post following this theme of feeling like a misfit at church and church functions.

Fact is, with many of these blog posts with their cookie-cutter description of the Mormon woman - happily married wife of multiple children - looks a lot like me. I don't really have any physical appearances that stand out from the "Mormon norm."

But,

I often feel and have felt like a misfit at church. I also share feelings of awkwardness, like I don't fit in. There have been times in my life that I've gone months sitting alone on a church bench every Sunday. There have been many church activities I've attended where I feel awkward, even uncomfortable socially. Like my personality and likes vary to a great degree to others around me. That I don't quite "fit in" with others at church.

So why do I go?

I go simply because I know that is where I belong. I feel so strongly that it is where I need to be and should be that it outweighs any sort of uncomfortable "mis-fit" feelings I encounter 10 fold. I know that the gospel of my church is true. This is precisely why I go. Always have. Always will.

And, I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only one who feels this way. If I appear to be part of of the "cookie-cutter" connotation yet feel like a misfit often, I am certain there are many others who may appear to me that they fit in, yet also have struggles of feeling like the odd ball at church too.

We are all so different. Our personalities. Our talents. Our passions. It's going to cause us to feel different a lot of the time. But just because we may feel different, uncomfortable or awkward at church by no way means that you don't belong. It's our differences that cause us all to need each other, to appreciate each other.

All of us struggle with different vices. All of us have our own specific struggles and short-comings. We all share this regardless of what our outward appearances look like.

Dare I say, we are all misfits at church. So feel free to join because the only thing that matters is that we are children of the most high. Everyone of us on this earth.



Heaven's slice is knowing why you belong at church.