Sunday, February 17, 2008

Learning from my little one ...

This week I learned an important lesson from Audrey.

Last week, she came running out of Sunday School all excited. The teacher had told them that they could invite a friend to church!! My first thought was - haven't I ever mentioned that she could bring a friend? Evidently not. . . so we had a discussion at lunch about who she could maybe invite along. She settled on her friend Thomas from across the street.

All week she hounded me - "Mommy, when are we going to go over and invite Thomas to my class? He would love it." For a few days there were a number of reasons we didn't go - bad icy weather, our gas/heat going out on a cold night, their daughter spending the night at the hospital ... but I said "Lord, if you have laid this on Audrey's heart, I'm not going to quench the Spirit here!" So on Friday we went over and Audrey asked all by herself. He wanted to come, and his parents agreed, so today we took him with us! It was so sweet to see Audrey's enthusiasm about showing her friend "her" church, and the kids ran down to their class holding hands :)

The lesson for me in this was that I need to be more like Audrey. Why don't I show the same enthusiasm about inviting someone to church? Why do I get apprehensive? What do I fear? Audrey went about this with excitement and not one shred of inhibition. In her mind - why would he NOT want to come with her to church? So why do I hesitate? Honestly, "evangelism" and sharing my faith have never seemed to come easily to me. So while I learn and grow in this area, I pray that meanwhile, God will continue to use our Audrey to help us all as a family share God's love and message of grace with others around us.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes... Romans 1:16

2 comments:

Chris Ann Schultz said...

I can relate. I was like Audrey since I came to Christ at the age of 4. God has always opened doors for me and pushed me out of my comfort zone, as well as my parents when I asked the neighbor across the street and his sister to church with us. He came to Christ there and his family was very angry with our family; I was the one who asked. :-). Later his mom came to Christ, too and has attended several Mennonite Church Bible Studies with my mom in the Perkasie area. Who knows how God can use you?
Definitely, you don't want to stand in the way, my mom didn't want to have a Bible Club one year and she ended up laying on the garage floor until seemingly she decided to allow me to have it in our garage. God won!
Thanks for sharing. Hope you are enjoying our updates on Chantel. I'm adding one today of her cooking eggs for breakfast. She has a set of utensils and a whisk and an apron, given by a close friend at church.
Chris Schultz

ErinOrtlund said...

What a sweetie! It's true--kids have so much to teach us!