Literally the second I finished listening to this sermon my dad called me. Kinda freaky. I'm going to tell y'all a quick story about him and Chick-fil-a.
So my dad has a small business where, in short, he helps companies hire hourly job workers and Chick-fil-a is one of his biggest customers. Every year he goes to their store owners conference and the one this year was last week. (Backstory my parents are totally not Christian and Chick-fil-a is totally Christian). My dad was telling me how every morning at the conference they "sang songs and listened to an encouraging talk." My aunt also happened to go with him this year, who is even more against religion which I thought was super ironic. But apparently they were both really moved by this conference and "met some of the most authentic and genuine people they have ever met." Later my dad sends me a video from the morning "songs" and its straight up a convention center with 5,000 people singing 10,000 reasons and my dad and aunt are just chilling in the middle of all of this.
Arisa and I (and many others) have been praying for my parents and sharing the gospel with them for a long time but there's been not much change. I just thought I would share this as an encouragement because I never thought Chick-fil-a would be the one to show my dad and aunt more of who Jesus is. They are by no means followers of Christ now but it reminded me of God's greater plan for our lives and also the importance of the 5th commandment. I'm being called to honor and respect them - and hopefully some of Jesus's character will shine through that.
Also ironically that's the aunt who I'm going to be living with next year in LA. So even though she's not my mom, she's going to be pretty close to one soon.
DJ touched on something that I have struggled with when hearing this commandment. Do I stay obedient to my parents when they don't follow God? He reminded us that God is still above any parent. I can and will honor my parents but when they get offended by my pursuit of Jesus I kinda just have to be ok with that.
Prayers for my family - that they can know Christ and the freedom they can have in a relationship with Him. And praises for Chick-fil-a!
Love this post and how God's person continues to move in unexpected places through His people. I firmly believe that your aunt (whether she likes it or not) will have (perhaps many times subtle and/or imperceptible) authentic encounters with Jesus through you during your time together in L.A. Great story. I prayed for your folks and aunt!
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