This week our famous Kentucky Christian is the actress and movie star from Louisville, Irene Dunne, who starred in the picture, I Remember Mama. Her life was not the easiest. Her father died when she was a child. Her mother brought her up in church where she decided to follow God. She said that she never strayed from His paths. Her faith became much more central to her life later, after her mother died. Writing about her faith for Guideposts Magazine in 1951, Dunne posed the essential question she tried to answer regarding each of her relationships. She wrote: “How can I find a simple, uncomplicated, sincere way of telling others about the richness, satisfaction, and joy that my religion brings to my life, so that they, too, may desire to open the door and let God in?” [1]
How would your students answer that question if you put it
to them in a children’s church or youth meeting? Would they point to ways that
their faith is a source of richness, satisfaction and joy? Do they think about
how to talk about their faith with their friends? Have they figured out how to
introduce their faith in ways that make their friends want to experience it
too?
Can you model your own experiences in sharing the Christian
message with others? Can you find words that are not christianese or that do not presume that the other person understands
that many Christians consider what is in the Bible to be their final authority
on matters of faith and behavior?
Irene Dunne gave an example of how she talked about her
faith with people who did not share it.
She said that “it was something
like seeing your friends for the first time since your return from a wonderful
trip—let’s call this a heavenly trip. You had such a glorious time, you’ve already
sent post cards, saying, ‘Wish you were here.’ If you have the gift of words,
your description of the place will make them want to go.”[2]
Comparing her faith to a wonderful trip was a clever way to
start a conversation about God. By itself, it did not explain how Christians
enter into a faith-walk. It did, however, make it possible for her friends to
ask a question that could lead to more explicit information about what she
believed. This is how a Kentucky movie star baited her conversation hook so
that her friends might want to know more about what she believed. Is hers an
example that your students might want to follow?
By Lesley Barker ©2020
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