Our Life Advertisement

By Muriel Larson

Every morning the school traffic patrolwoman stood at her station conducting traffic and helping the children get across the road safely. Every morning a certain man came down that road, slammed on his brakes, and scowled at her. As his car passed, she noticed a sign on the back bumper saying, "God Loves You." She had a slight acquaintance with the man and knew he professed to be a Christian.

Finally she could take it no longer. One day she waved the man over to the curb. "Sir," she said, "you have a sign on your car that says 'God Loves You.' But anyone looking at you would get a distinctly different message. Now I suggest you either remove the sign or take that scowl off your face!"

The man looked at her in surprise and embarrassment. Then he drove on. From that time on, the patrolwoman noticed the man's scowl was replaced by a cheerful expression, and he smiled at her as he drove by.

Many of us do not realize that the appearance we give to the world contradicts our Christian profession! We're harried, we're rushed, we're impatient. We growl, we scowl, we howl. Yet we may profess to be Christians, and we may even have a sign on our car or house that testifies for the Lord.

A young door-to-door salesman told me how he went to one house, and on the door was a sign, "Jesus will put a smile on your face."

He rang the doorbell. The woman who came to the door frowned at him and exclaimed in a sharp, angry voice, "Yeah? What d'ya want?"

Truly, that's the sort of thing that makes young people and others doubt Christianity! And it's really a shame how many of us parents talk a good Christianity, but live a bad testimony in front of our children! The Lord Jesus said, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Matthew 15:8

The things we say and do arise from our heart condition. Just as that driver didn't realize what a bad impression he was making on the traffic patrolwoman and others, we often don't realize the impressions we may be making on our families and others.

So where can we start to bring our words and actions into line with our Christian profession? Let's start with our heart. For Jesus said that all of the hateful things we say and do come from our hearts (Mark 7:20-23).

That driver changed after the patrolwoman rebuked him. No doubt he felt ashamed of himself, and perhaps he repented of his un-Christian attitude and got right with the Lord. True repentance packs power. It causes us to abhor our former wrong ways and thus can result in a transformation in our thinking and our lives!

Someone has said, "What you are speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you're saying." What do our lives tell others about our Christianity?

Muriel Larson writes from Greenville, South Carolina. MKLJOY@aol.com