God's grace made manifest through my family part 4: Kaity

In a couple of days my sister will be 18. I remember being 18. I thought I would be all mature and hot. Not true. For Kaity though, I think it will be. In terms of hotness, we've already voted her the hottest sister. As for maturity, she's way farther than I was at her age and even now, she continues to be a huge source of encouragement for me.

Kaity is probably the most logical and rational out of all us sisters. She thinks about things and sees them plainly as they are without letting her emotions influence her thinking. Very black and white and factual, which can sometimes get her into trouble. People (and I've done this too) take her strange rationality and seeming lack of emotion and her introverted-ness as being cold and uncaring.

Though she might come off as cold and uncaring and stoic, I know it's not true. God has done a lot of work in her heart, transforming her from the girl who once said, "When I met someone who was mean and bitter instead of thinking how awesome God's love that even this person might be saved, I thought, 'Well, now I know why there is a Hell.' I really struggled with loving my neighbor because some people just seem unlovable." He has turned her into someone who loves God and loves others. She has the biggest heart for the lost and the biggest passion for seeing souls won to and sanctified in Christ.

Throughout high school she had numerous conversations about her faith with her friends. Though they were uncomfortable and though at times they became confrontational she never stopped sharing. This past summer was really cool. Knowing that it might be her last opportunity to share the gospel with her close friends, she got them to start meeting up for Bible study. Bible study! It was her, her kind of Christian friend, her Catholic friend, and her unsaved friend, all meeting up for bible study. I remember when she told me, I was so confused and shocked. But, she is awesome and did it.The two weeks of summer break that I had at home, I was able to spend a lot of time with Kaity beacuse she only had class a couple of days during the week and because everyone else was in school or at work. We got a lot of reading and studying done at Starbucks those weeks and we also shared some good conversations. It was really amazing hearing her prayer requests for energy, compassion, and discernment when counseling and interacting with others. A lot of those interactions I had no idea about. Her ministry in the high school group at church reached far beyond talking with people who were there on Friday nights or Sunday mornings. Through email and Facebook she has kept in contact with a lot of the youth who had left the ministry or who didn't come out regularly.

More recently, she's had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of her classmates (Even as I write this, she's asking about how to 'present intelligent design to a hardcore evolutionist'). She sent this email to our college group last week:

Hey! This is Kaity with an update that couldn't wait for Thursday. Thank you to those who have been praying for me and my (persistent) friend. Last night I was able to share the gospel with him and praise God, he was very open to hearing it (he's a professing atheist so I was quite shocked). Thank you again to all those who were praying for opportunities for the gospel to arise from this awkward classmateship. Please continue to pray for him, that his heart would be softened to the gospel and that he would come to a saving knowledge of Christ and for me, that I am a good witness to him and that my life would reflect Christ's work in me. -Kaity.

God has been gracious to my sister in saving her and giving her these opportunities to share her faith. But more so, He's been gracious to me by giving me an example of one who's love for Christ genuinely flows into love for others and their souls, convicting me to seize the opportunities to share the gospel with those around me.

Happy Birthday, Kaity! (Is your presence in my life common grace or special grace?)

"Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens." Psalm 96:3-5