"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains." (Colossians 4:2-3)

As I have been challenging my students as a teacher in high school and with seminary student wives to be more intentional in sharing their faith, I know I must make this a priority in my life. It seems as if God just says, "Sharon, open your eyes. I'm giving you plenty of opportunities." I was helping one of my daughters pick out some new glasses frames and on the way out of the mall we wandered in to a fairly new shoe store. Being the only customers in the store, the store clerk was probably thinking, "Good, maybe they will buy some shoes" as I was thinking "Good, maybe we can have a chance to share a word of truth with the store clerk."

Kari and I looked at the sale rack and I picked out a pair of tennis shoes to try on. We found it easy to start a conversation and within a minute found out he had just moved to Louisville four days earlier for his job as store manager. He was a single adult in his mid-twenties. We talked for quite a while and then turned the conversation to church. After some interesting comments, we were able to suggest a couple churches near him with some good single adult activities so that he could "get to meet some people" around his age since he was new. We did not share the gospel, but we did make enough of an acquaintance to go back into the store to see how he is doing and perhaps move the conversation to a deeper level.

God does not ask us to convert people (that is the Holy Spirit's job); he just asks us to be willing and available. That is what I desire to be (though I so often fall short!).

Lord, help us all be faithful, available, and actively looking for any opportunity to share your Good News with others!