An Interesting Conversation and Thoughts that Followed

"Preach the Gospel at all times. And when necessary, use words." 

St. Francis of Assisi

Yesterday Bubba comes in and asks, "Mom, is J going to hell?" (J is a neighbor girl, who does not share our faith). Ok, why couldn't he come up with some easy question? Like, where do babies come from? I'd rather have answered that one any day of the week. I forgot what I said, exactly. Because.... what do you say to a question like that? You just kind of mumble and hope it makes sense. I didn't answer the question directly, but I did admonish him to be kind in how we speak to our friends and that if we truly want to share the Gospel with them, we didn't start things out like, "You're going to hell!"  Now, I know that that kind of talk is "typical", I guess, of children. The Bible does say that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. I remember some kid saying that to me when I was a child. Children fling insults at each other, using them as weapons against each other.  And "you're going to hell" is a big weapon. However, this morning, as I thought about it, I knew I couldn't let it slide. So, I talked to the kids about it in Bible class. I asked them what the best method of sharing our faith was.  They came up with "praying, reading the Bible, etc." They had no clue as to what I was talking about.  So, we talked about how if you say you love Jesus, but you act unkindly, are they really going to believe that you love Jesus?  And then I brought up the incident with J.  And basically I told them that they were forbidden to talk to their friends about God unless they were genuinely interested and cared that their friend knew Jesus.  Because it occurred to me that what they were doing yesterday, using God as a weapon to hurt their friends was actually in violation of the third commandment. (Deuteronomy 5:11  "'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.) And I told them that. I'm not sure if what I said sunk in at all. I hope it did. But, whether it did or not, they have been told. And I will continue to pray about it. I am not very good about sharing my faith, I'll admit. I'm not one to sit on an airplane with someone and share the Gospel.  But, I've had some (just a few at soccer practice) conversations with J's mother (just normal, mom-to-mom conversations) and would like to build a relationship with her and hopefully.... hopefully be able to share my faith.