The Power Of One Simple Invite
Tonight my oldest daughter attended her first night of {Survivor Week} at our church. It is a fun filled week of worship, teachings, games & food. Basically an older kids version of VBS. She was so excited to go, and she’s got in a group with some of her closest friends. She took a few pictures while she was there but I wanted to share about this one in particular.
This is her friend Julie Beth. We met Julie Beth and her family in Kindergarten.
The girl’s formed a close friendship, and towards the end of the school year Julie brought a post card to school with some information for a Vacation Bible School at a local church. Taylor excitedly brought it home and said she wanted “to go to the church school with her BFF.”
We signed Taylor and Wyatt up to go to VBS that year and they had a BLAST. We loved their experience there, but didn’t really have any intentions of switching churches.
We were attending a church in San Antonio at the time, one I grew up going to and we loved being there. However, with that one small taste of VBS and Taylor seeing Julie and other friends from school, I had a small longing in my heart for a church closer to home. Somewhere that we could go to and see people that we would be doing life with on a day to day basis. Friends from school, friends from sports and extracurriculars, etc.
Fast forward 4 months later. We had continued going to our church in San Antonio, but that feeling had not left me. It was October, and as a family we went to the homecoming football game in La Vernia. If you’ve ever experienced small town Texas, football.is.life… EVERYONE goes crazy over the Friday Night Lights, with the homecoming game being especially busy. We were walking along the bleachers to find a seat when all of the sudden I hear a woman say “Wyatt!” I look around and wasn’t sure who to expect to see. He had just turned 4, stayed home and attached to my hip most days, and didn’t exactly have a social life. 😛
The woman who called Wyatt’s name was his small group leader from VBS. She remembered his name. She remembered HIM. 4 months had passed and this total stranger picks my baby boy out of a crowded football stadium, called out his name, said hello, got up to give him a hug and asked “how’s my little buddy doing?”
It took me all of .323 seconds to say to myself, THAT is what I want. THAT is the church I want to call my home. THAT is what my heart is longing for. We went to church the immediate Sunday following that football game. We are coming up on 5 years now of calling that church our home.
I attribute this whole trail of events back to one single event. One precious little girl followed the prompting in her heart (whether she realized it or not) and said ” I will invite my friends to church.” Did her invite cause us to immediately come to church? No. Does it frustrate you if you follow something that the Lord prompts you to do and you don’t see immediate results? I know it does for me. I can be impatient and it can be hard to have to WAIT to see the harvest. To the woman who served her time, energy, and heart at VBS… Did she see instant fruit from those kids she served? At 3 years old its a 50/50 chance, haha. But in all seriousness sometimes do you ever wonder — are they listening? Are they learning? Is ANY of this sinking in?!
I share this story because I want to encourage you to say YES.
Yes I will step out of my comfort zone to invite that person over.
Yes I will serve in my church where needed, even if it doesn’t feel like it really matters.
Yes I will go out of my way to love on others, and make them feel special.
Yes I will be still enough to hear the Lords gentle voice and prompting on our hearts.
One simple invite changed the entire course of my family’s life.
I will always be thankful for this chain of events that happened to us.
Taylor took this picture tonight with Julie Beth, and I had to put them side by side with her first year at VBS. Words can’t describe the emotions this momma feels, and how happy my heart is tonight. God is good y’all.
