This morning as I was catching up on some old friends (via Facebook), I 
notice there was a ‘friend request’ from an unfamiliar name.
The name of the lady was one I didn’t recognize and therefore didn’t know. Most of the time I’m happy to accept request from people I’ve met or acquaintances from my past, but when I don’t know someone who ‘whats to be my friend’, I don’t click ‘YES’. And as I stated, I didn’t recognize this lady. However, this one was different. Along with the request, she sent me a note explaining that she had been in Italy during the summer of 1983
(29 years ago) and stayed with my family for 2 weeks. I figured she had to be a Harding campaigner because my husband and I hosted the group several summers providing them housing in our small apartment. (I guess sleeping on the air mattresses and sharing ONE bathroom was memorable to her.) Our co-workers/fellow missionaries usually kept the girls since they had 2 bathrooms. But on this occasion we kept the girls. To make a long story short…I decided to accept her friend request. She said she’d like to catch up with us, so I sent her a reply email along with the friend acceptance.
As it turns out, she came two summers, then at the end of the second campaign she and another girl worked with us in Italy for 4 weeks, staying in our home half of the time. She and her husband now live in Memphis, Tennessee and have a 15 yr. old son. They enjoy the opportunities to attend Harding University Lectureship each fall. She told me that the months she spent working in Italy really strengthened her faith and that experience has meant a lot to her over the years.
My point with all of this is simple, even when we aren’t intentionally trying to influence or help someone, we are! What is important is to realize that our influence might be for the good or it might be for the bad. People come in and out our lives every day. We have the opportunity to either show them God’s love and grow closer to Him…or not. I see a great lesson in this. Living our everyday lives we need to be careful that we are living for God so that we are a good influence for Him, even when we aren’t aware of others. Truthfully, I do not remember those months almost 30 years ago. But obviously she did. This Facebook request serves as a strong reminder of how important it is to live our lives thinking about our actions, our words and our example.
Donna
