To Testify

I first intended to talk about love today. It is a little bit related to love, but I think it is better to see it as testifying.
Sometimes in my life, I wish I could be a model to people I love. I wish I could bring them on the right path, show them what it is to do what is wrong so they do not make the mistakes I made in the past. I wish they could see my footsteps in the sand or in the snow of my life (maybe both) and be aware of traps but also safe ways. I am going to be very honest with you: I think my family is one of the most wonderful in the world, that is without thinking about all of my friends I grew up with.

In African families, specifically in my father's tribe, they are not familiar with the words “uncle", "aunt", "cousin" . Instead, they have “father", "mother", "brother" and "sister”. I am not saying that to criticize anything in the world’s former cultures, but because I have a point to make here. I grew up in that way of thinking, that I have many parents and way more brothers and sisters. This would happen even though I did not know them all and I did not have the opportunity to spend the same amount of time with each and every one of them. However, no matter how long I saw them, I loved them from the bottom of my heart, as if we all grew up together. They all mean a lot to me, and everything I t you before also applies to them (no matter how much older or younger they were than me). To be honest, I think I could give so much of myself for them. At least, it feels like it as I am writing.

However, nothing can make me that strong. And as I just told you, that would not even be good for them, because they need experience. They need to live a life that is going to build them up in another way -- a life that will, hopefully, take them to a better place. And if not, to a worse one, but I have no power over it.

The strength of my faith in God is that I know he does it according to his will. It is also that he wants me to love my family, and that they all get saved and know God. But it even goes further, that same God wants me to love everybody in a similar way that he loved me and still loves me today. Jesus said there is no greater love than laying down our own life for our friends (in John 15:13), and that is the kind of person I want to be. I want to be able to do ANYTHING to keep them safe. But more than that, I want to be that person that would be ANYTHING for Christ’s cause.

Through Paul (in 1 Corinthians 11:1), God urges us to imitate Christ. And Christ died for his friends -- every human being on Earth. He did so because he wanted, and still wants now that he is risen, us to live with Him forever and ever. Loving our family, our friends, our neighbors is the best way to imitate him. You might never be asked to literally give up your life for them, nor for Christ. But to change, to become a better person.

I cannot bear all of my family’s suffering on my shoulders, because it would not be good for them. I cannot tell them, “believe me I know what I am telling you is right, because I have been through it a while ago. So, trust me because I do not want you to suffer the way I did” (actually, I tried, but you can ask my sister. It did not go well in our relationship right after that). However, I can let them know what I have been through. I can tell them my experiences, how it took me further in my life, in my path with God. And I can love them with everything I have and prove it to them.

What I want to tell you today is that we cannot do all we wish we could to save our family or our friends. The truth is, we cannot save them. Jesus only can. However, it does not mean we cannot drive them closer to God with loving them and praying for them.

And the thing I know is that my family and my close circle is awesome. I am so blessed I am surrounded by these people. Even if sometimes we do not agree, we fight, I know God placed me here for a reason. So, I just have to be that person who serves God in her very close circle, who makes them feel like there is something different, something that sets me apart from anyone and everyone else they may know. It would be way greater if they all knew Jesus the way I know Him, or even more. This is my job. I am far from being perfect, believe me, I have many things to change, but who better than my family to notice these changes?

That is all I was thinking about lately, I really needed to share it with you.
May God bless you and make you become a better person, a better witness
Do

(Corrected by Jane)