A person who influences...

Sunday was a great day at church. We had a guest speaker that gave a great message. One that I felt a special connection to. His message was on being a person of influence. His resonating theme was that we ALL can be a person of influence if we choose to and then challenging us to figure out who is someone we can influence. This is and has been a very personal topic for me since I was a little girl. I have my parents to thank for the ability to reach outside of myself and give completely of myself to love someone unconditionally just because. When I was a little my parents were given a unique opportunity from the Lord to love someone just because and my life is richer because my parents were obedient to what the Lord had in store for our family. My older sister was adopted in to our family when she was a college student. She needed us and we needed her. It was a divine match and one that could have only come from the Lord. The beauty of choosing to be obedient by influencing someone is that the influence comes full circle. At the time when she moved in my parents were an influence and she was an influence on my sisters and me. Today those two statements are still true BUT she also influences my parents and my sisters and I are influences on her. Full circle.

Throughout that entire message on Sunday I knew who we, Andy and I, influence. For this season in our lives we've been given an incredible group of students to love just because. Students that come from different backgrounds and have different needs. We rejoice with them in their accomplishments and we love to cheer them on. I'm fiercely protective of them, too. Guess it's my mama bear instincts coming out. We LOVE spending time with them and investing in them. It has been incredible to see the relationships that have developed out of us offering a place for them to retreat to off campus. I'm not going to lie when they are gone for breaks the house seems empty. I'm grateful too for their influence in my child's life. AG lights up when they come over to visit. And they sure do love him... several of them have created personal sign language "names" for themselves and practice with AG every chance they get...we'll see whose name he says first! And I guess that is where it comes full circle...they need us and we need them. AG's life is so much richer because of the special bonds he has already formed in his first year of life. Funny how history tends to repeat itself. Be a person of influence. Love someone unconditionally. Your life will be so much richer because you did.