My today's devotional was about the value of one. I shared it in my previous post.  In the last 6 months to a year, I have been feeling more ready to reach out to others about my faith and to share what knowledge I have about God and Jesus. I have prayed that God would help me to be aware of opportunities where I could share my faith and to give me the courage to do so. As always, he has provided an answer.

1. A couple of months ago my sister and brother-in-law were visiting and they started asking questions about where we went to church and some other related questions. They were pondering going to church. My sister-in-law was much more ready than my brother-in-law. Their children had been going to a local church for awhile thanks to the efforts of my mother-in-law when she was in town and to Nanny who passed away in June.  Now both my sister-in-law and brother-in-law are going to church. Praise God!

2.  My children go to Awanas on Sunday night. There is a family two doors down that has two children, each a couple of years younger than mine and they do not attend church. This family has been a bit stand-offish in the years we have lived here. Last summer I made some overtures towards M, but she was going through a tough time and wasn't up to responding. We started taking walks in the late afternoon now that the weather is cooler and almost everyday we saw the kids outside playing. Last week, M was out there and I said hello, but let the opportunity to invite the kids to Awanas pass by. We walked on and I vowed if they were still out when we came back, I would ask. Well, they weren't and a week passed by before I caught M in the yard with the  kids. I told her about Awanas and she has said she would think about it as the time would make it late for her oldest to get to bed. I also was led to invite them to attend the church we are going to (different from the one we go to for Awanas). We talked quite a bit about church and a seed has been planted. Also, when I told her we were going to walk most every afternoon, she said she would like to join us. Yesterday she and her children were at the top of our driveway ready to go.  M is 25 and I hope God will give me the wisdom to be of assistance to her and her children.

3.  I missed an opportunity and acted very ugly to a person when I could have demonstrated a Christian behavior instead. Thank goodness the Lord forgives me and I hope he will present me with another opportunity. One day I was leaving a local restaurant (children in the back seat) and this guy was pulling in and not watching where he was going (he was looking at other traffic and almost ran into us). I looked at him quizzically and he rolled down his window and started talking. I thought he was going to apologize, but he rolled down his window and started saying the most foul things to me. Instead of rolling up my window or saying something kind in return, I acted just as ugly back (reverting to language that I rarely ever use anymore, but used to frequently be in my vocabulary). I am sorry I missed this opportunity and ashamed of the behavior I exhibited before my children, but I apologized to them and told them I had behaved badly and hopefully, there is a lesson there for them in my mistakes.

Well, that's enough sharing for now. I hope all of you who drop by my blog have a blessed day! Must get to work1