Let your light shine

My mom is an extremely talented tailor. In this day of fast fashion and athleisure, can you even remember a time when people would regularly pay to get their clothing altered?!

But they did. And my mom built close relationships with several of her customers. Some of those customer relationships lasted years.

But there was this one particular lady who really liked my parents and invited our family to her house for dinner. My mom told me that they were Christians had a daughter my age.

I was 13 years old, in 8th grade, and miserable. So imagine my surprise when we went to their home, met the daughter, and learned that she did not go to school! This was back in the mid-80s, so I had literally never met a kid who didn’t go to school. I was rude and asked her all the typical questions ????

I was in middle school. Bullied, struggling in school, jaded, and hated everyone and still had the Philly attitude. But through all my suspicion of this girl, I remember thinking, “I have never ever met such a kind and happy person”. I honestly didn’t know a kid my age could be this genuinely pleasant.

Her kind spirit left such an impression on me.

Fast forward 14 years and here I was. Baffled that God could be telling me to homeschool. But at that moment, the memory of that girl came flooding back. Remembering her character helped me to move past my fears and doubts because I wanted what she had for my kids.

When the Bible tells us to shine our light before men, I’ve always assumed it meant for us to be a light for unbelievers. That’s how it’s always preached. But lately, I’ve been considering this verse as a way Christ is telling us to be a light for Believers who are struggling.

Most of the time, we don’t know what benefit our work will bring. We don’t know how others are interpreting or experiencing us. But that light that we shine. That light that only God can give, it can shine for years. That light can illuminate the way for someone struggling even years later.

I don’t know where that girl is, but I still think of her with gratitude. Her inner light shone so bright, it lit the way for me 14 years later and changed the course of my family’s history.