Be Sure You Talk to Strangers

We recently took our grandchildren to see Santa Clause at Bass Pro. On the way home, our granddaughter asked her mom if she thought that was the real Santa Clause.

Her mom said something about the fact that his beard looked real and then said, “What do you think?” Our granddaughter responded by saying, “Well, I sure hope he was, because if he wasn’t I just sat on the lap of a strange man I don’t even know!”

Wow, these kids are always a step ahead of us, aren’t they?

There’s probably a lot of wisdom in telling our little ones things like, “Don’t talk to strangers, and don’t take candy from strangers!” Most of us were probably given those guidelines as we were being raised.

So, it shouldn’t surprise us if we have difficulty striking up a conversation with people we don’t know.

But, is there a better time to reverse that instruction, than during the Holiday season. People are generally more receptive, they may be more open to having a discussion with someone they haven’t met, and many people around us are likely to be more in-tuned to Spiritual discussions.

So, what are some things we can do?

Smile, and be friendly to everyone. If anyone should be filled with joy at every season of the year, it should be men of God.

Don’t be afraid to talk to people about Jesus. We don’t have to preach to people about not knowing the date of Jesus’ birth. Why not spend some time talking about the love of Jesus and how thankful we are that He came?

Spend some time in prayer about how we will treat people we meet.

Be willing to invite people to be your guest at worship.

I hope you will take some time during this Holiday season to talk to strangers!!