Not Everybody Will Listen

When Donnie and I first met I was not going to church. I had a church upbringing but not with my own family. I went with my next door neighbors. My parents started my brothers and I out in church, but it only lasted until the 2nd grade then we stopped going. It is a long story and we all have one, so simply stated I was not going to church. I was 17, but desperate for anything to "fix" my brokenness. So, when I met Donnie I was really tired from all that I had put myself through and was so thankful to have found a stable person to help guide me away from all that I was. When we got engaged, I still hadn't surrendered my life to Christ. I thought I had, but I don't think that I really had. I do believe that I always had a heart for him, but I was not surrendered at that point.

All I knew was that we couldn't get married without going to church, so he agreed. He was not raised in church, but he was willing to do whatever I wanted so we would be happy. The irony of this story is that he was not raised, nor taught the things of the Lord, but yet he has more Christlike qualities than anyone I have ever met!


After I had been married a while a friend of mine from High School was interested in going to church with me. So, one Sunday she went and seemed very uncomfortable, and never went back. We would talk about heaven and hell, and salvation, but she told me that she wanted to make that commitment.

I had another friend in the same situation, never went to church, wasn't raised in church, and only had heard the name Jesus but didn't know anything else. She asked me if she could come to church with me one Sunday, and so she did. She enjoyed it, and went home and told her husband about it. Not long after they began looking for a church in her area...and then soon after she made a commitment to Christ and I watched her be baptized!

Why do I write all of this you wonder? Well, I have to realize that not everyone that I share Christ with is going to accept what He gives. Just because it rings sweetly in my ears doesn't mean it will on everyone. Both friends were interested, but one wasn't ready to walk away from her life. That's OK. Maybe God has just allowed me to plant the seed, and someone else will come along and fertilize and water it and then she will accept. My other friend was ready. I just happened to have the opportunity to be in her path.

Later on my friend that did accept Christ told me that I just talked about church and God with her like she was supposed to understand and so she had to check it out for herself. I guess I am just to real sometimes and will just share just about anything...but something clicked. I had no idea what I was doing was churning up something in her, but God did.

I sometimes get discouraged about my old friends and how they are still in the same rat race of life with no shield, but then I have to remember the few that did meet the Jesus that I shared with them. I can't give up, although in this day in age it feels as though people are becoming less and less receptive...we need to make our knees bleed in prayer for thsoe who are lost. We need to cry out to our Father for those who don't want to listen. I am afraid the time is coming closer and closer for there to be no more tomorrow. Not everybody will listen, but that doesn't mean that we quit telling the story. There are some that are ready and waiting but just don't know it..so we have to sow it :)