Every Opportunity

 Devotion for the Week...

Most mornings the kids I babysit ask if we can dance. We crank up the music and dance around together, which usually devolves into them spinning in circles and me telling them to take a break and just dance for a minute before they get too dizzy and fall down, but at least it starts out with dancing. As you can imagine, they have pretty cool dance moves, which they love to show off, with lots of me being told to "Watch this move!"

I have a playlist saved on Spotify for these morning dance parties, filled with upbeat Christian songs like My Feet are on the Rock, Good God Almighty, Happy Dance and House of the Lord. They make me smile 😊 

One morning recently one of the 2 year olds picked up on the word "God" in one of the songs. "God?" she said. "What do God mean?" I explained that God is the One who made all of us and loves us. She nodded and went right back to spinning in circles and that was the end of the conversation. 

Thinking about that little exchange later, I remembered the verse in Colossians where Paul wrote, "Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone" (Colossians 4:5-6). Well, in all honesty, I remembered one portion of it, then went looking for it and found the rest. There is so much in these two verses!

First, live wisely among those who are not believers. We all live among those who are not believers. We rub shoulders with people who do not believe in Jesus all the time, so we should always strive to live wisely because we never know when our actions will impact someone's view of Christians. And what people think of Christians will impact what they think of Jesus.

Make the most of every opportunity. This was the part of the verse that came to my mind because of her dance party question. It was just a tiny moment and one that she probably won't remember, since she's only two. That isn't my concern, though. God wants us to take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of us to tell others about Him, even if a 2 year old's memory isn't all that great, and it's only one little moment. He'll string the little moments together as needed all through her life, if the Christians she has contact with are faithful to make the most of the opportunities. How many of those little opportunities have we been given throughout the years? Have we made the most of them?

Let your conversation be gracious and attractive. Um, ouch. I don't know about you, but my conversation isn't always gracious and attractive, especially when I'm irritated, frustrated, tired...you get the idea. Again, this comes back to the idea that what people think of us will directly impact what they think of Christians as a group and what they think of Jesus. This applies even to the 2 years olds in my company, even if they don't understand right now what a Christian is. Eventually they will and maybe they will also remember some of the songs we once danced to. What associations will they have with those songs because of my conversation towards them?

And lastly, so that you will have the right response for everyone. I could have answered her question, ("what do God mean?) with an explanation about God being the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and the roles of each. That might have been a little over her head, though! There will be times we share everything we know about something in response to a question. There will also be times we need to give the quick, simple answer. It's important to pay attention so we know which is the right response.

Will we get all of these things right all the time? I doubt it. But it's worth the effort because only God knows what will come of the opportunities before us.