Complete in Thee: Someone's Watching!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Someone's Watching!

Dr. S. M. Davis has an excellent message about "The Kingdom of Your Influence". He compares one's influence to the kingdom over which he rules. Each of us influences someone-- we cannot turn our influence off, no matter how hard we try. There is always someone who is watching us and who will learn from what we do or say. This can be good, or it can be bad. If we are living for Christ, hopefully we can influence others to desire to live for Him too. But if we are walking in disobedience to God, maybe someone will say, "Oh, well, if she does it, I guess I can too!" and displease Christ.

This week some friends from Indiana came to visit. We met them when the father was serving as an interim pastor at a church we used to go to, and have kept up a friendship with them even after they moved. They have a little girl named Kaylyn. Kaylyn was three when I met her and is almost seven now. Kaylyn's and my relationship is very unique. I am ten years older than her, at a completely different stage of life, and yet she considers me her "best friend". She writes me letters and loves to have me read to her and play dolls with her when we get together. It's so fun, not only for her, but also for me! There is one thing that I have to keep an eye on: that is, what am I teaching her by my example? Do I teach her to be unkind to her siblings when I get exasperated at my own sister about something? Or do I teach her to be like Christ and show love towards others by showing love myself? Do I teach her to want to do her own thing and not listen to authority? Or do I, by submitting myself, teach her the joys of submission? Do I influence her to seek things of this world? Or do I encourage her, by my example, to seek the

things which are above? Since she looks up to me as a best friend, she will want to do what I do. She's watching me-- does she me following Christ?

Then the situation reverses when it come to the friendship between Kaylyn's mom and myself. Mrs. Hadley has been such an encouragement to me and is an example to me of the godly lady I want to be. Because she has been careful to reflect Christ and be an example of the believers, I have been influenced by her to desire Christlikeness myself. She and I write back and forth too, and her letters are always so encouraging. There are ladies at church, too, like her that I am blessed to know. I watch them and see how they respond during circumstances, how they relate to their husbands, how they work with their children, and so forth...

We all influence someone. We must watch to make sure that we influence them to seek Christ

rather than to live for themselves. Think as you go about your day today-- someone's watching!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: It can be scary, thinking about all of the people who are watching us and learning from us, but it's good for us to remember that. Thanks for the reminder!; September 15, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Pure Little Ladies Ministry said...: Wonderful post Melanie!!! That's something I need to be thinking about all the time....there's an 8-year-old that comes to our fellowship, I've known her since she was born but there's major differences....such as she goes to public school, loves all the stuff about Hannah Montana and High School Musical, and well, you can guess the rest. She's a typical school kid even though her family is Christian. I think it's hard for her to realize that by liking all that stuff, she really is being changed to the world. The only time she really SEES a girl living her faith would be the time we have together on Saturdays. Even the other girls that come sometimes go to private or public school and they act like, well, school kids that are influenced by the world. It's hard on me and it puts a LOT of pressure knowing that I'm the only chance they have to be influenced by Godliness! But sometimes I feel like they AREN'T watching, and it's hard to be the only one around who really CARES about their faith, even though all the girls (minus one) are all younger than me. They look up to me, I know, but sometimes you wonder if they're REALLY getting the message you're trying to show, you know?

Anyhow, thanks for sharing. ^_^

Love ya,
Toria; September 17, 2008 at 4:04 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."