One of the ways I saw the kingdom of God in their home was just through her parents’ marriage. I did not understand how maybe her mom could be, “less beautiful” by the world’s standards, or maybe they could have less or do less at vacation or you know, have maybe less presents at Christmas, yet still have more joy and have more life and be so much more content and happy with the life that God’s given them. I remember a moment, her mom was working in their garden and her parents were probably at least 10 year older… 10 years older than my parents. They had six kids and she was this, she was number five. So they made a lot more babies in their years of parenting. There was just this moment, I remember her dad, who was probably in his 50s and bald, and her mom who was probably you know, in her young 50s and, and just kind of wearing this outfit that I would see in like a pilgrim story on a woman. And I remember her getting down, or her husband getting down on one knee and just saying like, “Shelley, you’re the most beautiful woman in the world. I would marry you all over again today.” and just looking at her with eyes of such love. And I’m like, I have never seen anything like that in my whole life. Like, all I have known is that you have to make yourself look more beautiful and more beautiful and more beautiful if you want that kind of love. And I’d never seen someone so genuinely demonstrating love and just honestly being married for 20 years and still being flirtatious and still being just love struck with that person. That was just something that was completely not on the grid for me.

There were a lot of moments like that, that just were a complete paradigm shift. So I felt like I just got 1000 little snapshots of the love of God every single time that I came over, and not only was it just these moments, I got to see just the demonstration of the love of God and what it is like to live in the kingdom of God. I also had her parents kind of boldly ask me sometimes as I got older, I remember calling her up and her dad would say, “Hi, Lindsey, do you know that God loves you? I just want you to make sure that you know that God loves you.” And he would just, all these different times he would just say something to me that, that to me just seemed so random. It would just shock me. I’m like, “I don’t know. I mean, I guess I’ve never thought about that.” And so I just thought it was so crazy that everywhere he went, he was trying to get to know people’s stories. He was trying to share the love of Jesus with them. And all of those thousands of moments that added up, just led to me asking this question of: How do I get this life that you guys have? Like, whatever you are doing, that’s what I want. I want in on this.”

Funny enough, they weren’t really the people that I went to to ask that question. My parents did bring me to church every now and then, like I said. But it wasn’t until I had to go to this confirmation camp, because in the denomination I grew up in, you had to get confirmed. I never met Jesus in that church. But the confirmation camp that they made us go to is a place where I finally just heard the gospel presented from A to Z. And I was like, yeah, that’s the whole thing I’ve been wanting somebody to tell me all these years that I’ve been getting these glimpses into the kingdom of God. And as fast as they could make that altar call, I like ran up there and was just like, yes, this is everything I’ve been wanting to know. Finally, all the dots have been connected for me and, and I’m all in. From then on it just, it was a journey of meeting Jesus and not in a religious way but having a relationship with Him, where He speaks to me and where I encounter Him through His Word and where His Spirit can lead me in my everyday life. 

It’s just become a passion of mine, to be that kind of neighbor. Like, I’ve never met a neighbor like that in my life ever again since that family, and they have really given me a lot of courage to to just ask point blank, “Do you know that God loves you?” Or, “Do you know that Jesus wants a relationship with you?” Because I want to take advantage of every opportunity I can to give someone a glimpse of the kingdom of God.

One time all my neighbor kids were over at my house.We have a cul de sac that we live on where there’s 25 kids under the age of 12. And so there’s always neighbors ringing my doorbell. It’s kind of, I mean, it’s a blessing and it’s also like, AH! Just stop ringing the doorbell.

But one day, they were all over at my house and I’m known for two things on my street–my lemonade and my popcorn. So they were all kind of sitting underneath our trampoline, just to be shaded from the heat. They were super hot. Obviously, we live in Texas and being outside in the summer there, everyone’s kind of dying of heat out here. And I came under the trampoline; I just had this moment where the Holy Spirit was just like, “Tell them I’m the sweetest thing they would ever see or taste.” And I was just like, Okay, I will. And I just went up to them and they were like, Ah, yes, this lemonade. It’s so refreshing. So sweet. And I was just like, “You know what, knowing Jesus is even sweeter, and better and more refreshing. And that feeling you get when you’re so hot and you just have a cold glass of lemonade–His Spirit is going to refresh you like that.” 

I’m not afraid to like use examples that would seem so cheesy if I said this to an adult my age, but if you say it to a six year old, this might make some kind of alarm go off, you know, even if we don’t know that we’re doing it, even if the kingdom of God in our home almost feels normal to us. We can never assume that this is normal to the people that are around us. The kids and the neighbors that come in my home all the time, they don’t have homes where they believe. I don’t know what their parents’ marriage is like behind closed doors. And each time I just have those interactions, I just remember, like, they’re getting a glimpse of the kingdom of God when they’re here. And I pray that all those little glimpses just sow seeds and that this is a kingdom impact that can spread in neighborhoods throughout generations.

I had always kind of attributed my salvation to that moment that I responded to the altar call and then it really wasn’t until years later that I was like, You know what? It was not the altar call. I mean, that was great. I needed that. But it was the thousands of moments that I was with Hope’s family that really was the thing that made me want to say yes.