The Most Effective Communication
Mark 7:31-37
Illustration
by Michael B. Brown

I heard a Christian recording artist on the radio recently talking about the most important influences in his life. He knows and has worked with all the most prominent Christian preachers, lecturers, authors and performers in the nation. But he said above and beyond them all, the single most profound influence in his life (in fact, he said, the single force that won him to Christ) was his mother. He confessed that he had not been an easy child. If trouble were to be found, he was usually the one to find it. But every night his mother would come into his room, kneel beside his bed and talk to Jesus about her son. He would listen in as she said: "Jesus, he's a good boy. He just doesn't know it yet. Give me the patience to be his mother. Let me be slow to anger and quick to forgive. And let me love him the way you do." The singer said: "I play concerts before huge audiences. I am heard on radio stations around the world. But somehow I think the most important witness I make is every night when I'm home I kneel and pray beside my little boy's bed like Mama did next to mine." We never know the incredible influence we can have on the world simply by sharing our faith, articulating the gospel, to one other person at a time. The most effective way of communicating is not through what we say but rather through what we do and what we are.

CSS Publishing Company, Be All That You Can Be, by Michael B. Brown