Praising the Lord all week long

I've decided that for this whole week before Thanksgiving I will post something every day that has been a special blessing in my life this past year.  From learning a few lessons in God's school, or a blessing of His provision, or the everyday things that I take for granted.... So here we go!

My first post will be on something that God answered prayer on after 17 years of prayer!!!

On August 17th of this year I was sitting in the living room with my Nana.  Now my Nana is the perfect, storybook Nana:)... The smell of cookies in her kitchen, high stools at the counter are perfect for long talks and sharing the said cookies.  She lives on a lake- and as I reflect on the years, she has put up with a lot of sandy feet trekking through her house:) She always believed that building people up is what everyone should be doing for their neighbor. However, saying all of this, I must also add. Nana is not a Christian.

As I sat in the living room of her home and chatted about anything and everything I began to feel the tug on my heart to veer the subject towards Christ...my time with Nana was limited as she now had in-home hospice taking care of her. So, swallowing the fear that bubbled up and tried to choke me I began to tell her a story about something that had happened to me only a few weeks ago.

The story revolved around our VBS week that we had had at our church. Before VBS begins every night at my church we have a time of prayer as a group in our auditorium.  The very first night my pastor looked out at all of us and said, "We only have one week to reach these kids, I want each of you to be prepared that if I am talking with a child about salvation and another one wants to talk about it too, I want to be able to turn around, look at you, and ask if you can go and talk with them."

After the meeting a friend of mine walked up to me and we discussed what our Pastor had asked of us.  I had led a little girl to the Lord only once and botched it up (in human terms)-  it was all the better as all the glory went to the Lord!!!:) But we both felt that we needed to be better prepared, so for three nights out of the week we met right after the meeting and ran ustairs to go over God's Bridge to Salvation and the Romans Road.

As I explained this to Nana I also began to tell her how we practiced and what the message of salvation was. After the story was done I asked her if she had ever asked Jesus into her heart before, she replied; "I've always had faith, but I don't have a faith like you."

I then asked her if she wanted to have a faith like mine and she replied that she did!!!

After praying with her I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry! I felt like dropping to the floor and weeping and the next minute jumping for joy and praising God!:)

If you have an unsaved grandparent, remember this - you are the grandchild, you can get away with a lot more things with that title.:) As the grandchild you have an open door to speak with them about anything. You are the apples from their tree.  They may have a more difficult time listening to your parents or any adult in general as the relationship is very different. But I will encourage you, if you have any unsaved family or friends, speaking up and proclaiming Christ does not make you look like a fool in God's eyes!

Rand Hummel once commented on how scared people are sometimes when they are trying to witness to someone, "They may laugh at you, your feelings may be hurt but you'll be fine; they may hit you, you'll heal; they may kill you, you'll go to heaven!":)

Sharing Christ may make you feel like butterflies are in your stomach; even the great evangelists say that! But the effect after you have spoken to someone about Christ is a lasting emotion that fills you with the Holy Spirit and makes you feel the Savior's loving embrace encompass you. I know for my part that I would love to have that feeling 24/7!!

This praise also comes with a prayer request, as I led my Nana to the Lord my unsaved Grampa left the room.  He has been witnessed to on numerous occasions, however he has closed the door on the subject and refused to speak of it.  Please pray for his heart to be softened and prepared for the Lord's entrance into his life.