When the Light Turns On....

The most amazing thing happened today! I had the best reading session I have ever had and I had to get on and tell you about it myself. I have been reading with a woman named Teresa for 4 weeks now. She said at the first session that she had no religion and did not agree with her family that blindly followed the Catholic church. She was a curator in an inquisition Museum and has a strong distrust of all "religions". She has strong principles and believes in good conduct, but something is missing in her life. The word worship was in our lesson today and she had a hard time with the definition. I tried to explain by saying that worship was placing something or someone first in your life; it is your purpose for living. Teresa said that she didn't worship anything. So I made a list of all of my priorities in order, starting with God, Jeff, Noah, family, etc. and told her that whatever was at the top of the list was the thing that I worshiped. She decided to do the same and her list was her health, her family's health, her friends, travel, and her job. We then talked about how much time a week she spends on each thing and why the thing at the bottom of her list took up all of her time. I told her that my job also took up a lot of my week, but that I could serve God while I was teaching by showing my students that I love them, that God loves them and that they are special to Him. Thus, God has given purpose to my job. The key was to try to serve your first priority while doing all of the rest of your responsibilities. She just looked at me for a long time and finally said "This is so exciting...And embarrassing. I have gone my whole life and never thought about the reason that I do things. You are teaching much more than English, you are teaching a new way to live. If you had said that we were going to talk about religion I would have put up a wall around me and never listened. I now understand why my life is so empty and unhappy. I feel like a pirate ship, always sailing and looking for something but I don't know what. " I told her that it was interesting that she used that analogy because Jesus wants to be our anchor. She didn't need to look anymore. The bible says that we are empty jars of clay and that He can fill us with His love and joy. She said that she has been trying to fill her jar with many other things, like work, and has never been happy. Jeff and I are only here to plant seeds of faith and pray that they will take root. But praise God that sometimes, even though He doesn't have to, He lets you be there to see the light come on.

I will be reading with Teresa one more time next Wednesday. Please pray that God will continue to convict her heart and that she can finally find purpose in her life through Him.

Praise God!

Kristina