Monday, November 06, 2006

Fondue Revelations

Thus far I have been blissfully ignorant about the spiritual state of my fellow MOPS friends.

No longer.

The “mentor mom” – a designated older, more experienced woman – in our larger MOPS group invited our small group to her house for a fondue party last week.

As I was happily devouring my chocolate, the mentor mom, Mindi, started asking us to share where we are in our walk with God.

The first lady shared about how she attends church most of the time and that she knows she needs to go more often. She was not raised Christian.

My good friend Kristi, who invited me to join MOPS, and I were sitting together on the couch and we were the second and third people to share.

Kristi and I shared similar things … about our Christian background, God’s working in our lives, that we know we have a lot farther to go, and we’re grateful for God’s faithfulness. Yada, yada, yada.

Then the discussion took a turn with one woman expressing her objections to Christianity and that she has thought about it, and all roads lead to heaven, and that it’s all about “searching inside yourself and being a good person.”

Then, our group LEADER, said, “Yeah, I’m pretty much in the same boat as you.” She said that she doesn’t really think it’s important to go to church and has no desire to read her bible. She seemed a little more open to Christianity than the first lady, though.

I realized, when I joined MOPS, that there would probably be quite a few non-Christians but I guess I always thought that our group leader, at least, would be a Christian.

Every time we meet, we pray and we use Christian terminology. I guess I just assumed that all the ladies at my table were believers. This was a wrongful assumption.

One thing I really appreciated about the fondue discussion is that all the ladies were open and honest. There was no pretension or façade. This is the best starting point possible.

I’ve been praying for opportunities to be a salt and light for Christ. I guess God has now given me what I asked for. I just pray that I don’t blow this opportunity. It would be easy for me to find excuses – I have transportation issues that prevent me from getting to know people better, or “I’m so young” compared to most everyone else, or the mentor mom would be a better person to share, etc., etc.

Sigh … No more blissful ignorance. Now, what am I going to do with this newfound knowledge?

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