Guest Blog Day - Kathryn Plumlee

Today's Guest Blogger, Kathryn Plumlee, gives us an excellant example of a spontaneous Faith Walk experience. Faith Walks are simply a category to describe conversations about God that unfold in the context of the family’s day-to-day life. Faith Walks are everyday! Every question that arises in the daily walk of life is an opportunity for parents to form their child’s faith.

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So many of us in the community have driven by 151st and Memorial on a morning route to work or school and have seen the man preaching at the QuikTrip. A year or so ago, on a rush in to buy our breakfast of champions (chocolate milk and donuts) my oldest son, then about nine, asked me about that man, "Mom, He is kind of scary. Why would he be doing that with everyone looking at him?" I remember thinking to myself that I had so often asked this same question.

But I used the opportunity to teach Andrew that God sometimes asks us to do strange things. I simply told my son that the man felt called by God to stand on this corner and make sure everyone heard the name of Jesus as they went to work that morning. We discussed how God uses us in strange ways at times and that He doesn't ask us to understand. 

Andrew asked if it would scare me to stand on the corner and shout out the name of Jesus to everyone passing by I honestly answered,  "Yes, however;  if God asks us to do something, He promises to take care of us, and equip us for the task."

Now this is the really cool part of the story. Last week as my boys and I were driving again to QuikTrip to get our Monday breakfast of champions, my five-year-old Noah asked almost the same question. However, this time I didn't have to say a word. My twelve-year-old Andrew looked at his baby brother and told him almost the exact same thing we had talked about. Andrew told Noah that if God asks you to do it, you just do it, and you trust Him to take care of you. WOW, tears of joy! Joy, first of all, that Andrew had listened to my conversation, and secondly, that he had taken it to heart. 

Pretty soon all three of my boys were discussing things they could do that would be scary but that they knew God would want them to do. Things like speaking to friends about God, standing up for someone being bullied, not following friends who ask them to do something against their parents, etc.

This whole conversation happened in about four minutes in the car on the way to work and school. But I pondered it and sang praise to God about it all day long.

My prayer is that someday, not too far off in the future, one of these three little boys will be asked by God to do something big. And at that moment they will remember the guy preaching at QuikTrip, and they will remember to be brave and trust God. 

In Joshua 1:9, as the children of Israel prepared to go into the Promised Land, God told them, "Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go!