First, let me start by telling you that I am not a strict church-goer. In fact, after college where I completed a Minor in Religious Studies and analyzed the world’s major religious belief systems in an intensely academic way, I was completely turned off to all religion for a very long time. However, this past winter while my husband was away on a painfully extended training trip which lasted from the first week of January until the last week of February, I decided it was a good time to see what church could offer me at this point in my life. I was alone with my two young sons braving…