Where are the religious quotes?

Those who know me only through the internet are often a little surprised to find out how religious I am. I don't proclaim it loudly. I don't tend to even leave comments with references to my beliefs.

I wish I could say I'm not that way in person, but if you walk into my home you will not see scripture all over the walls. Nor will you hear me talk about scripture, or spout off religious homilies.

But honestly, I've felt guilt for not witnessing loudly and vocally and in all ways. I remember trying to force it in college, and I decorated my dorm room with posters and such that reflected my beliefs. While I liked them, I always felt uncomfortable asking my friends in my room. I could not figure it out until a meeting with the BSU director over something. It is strange that I can not remember what it was about now, but I remember the gist of the conversation. It was one of those lightbulb moments for me.

The reason I always felt uncomfortable with having friends come into my dorm room, is that my friends were, for the most part, NOT big on the whole Christianity thing. In fact, many were non-Christian.

Okay, so, in talking with this leader that I respected, I felt like I should be a more vocal witness to them. His response to me was that if I felt like I should be doing more, then I should. But I responded to him that I felt like I was pushing it, and pushing them away. That something was trying to get me to hold back, and I thought it was my own natural shyness regarding that. My own "uncomfortableness" if you will. He told me that perhaps these friends did not need to be vocally witnessed to, that perhaps they needed to SEE the actions lived out in a life more. That words on a wall (or a blog), spoken words said by rote, not followed up by actions can do more harm than good. Many times non-Christians are turned off by the very things that Christians thrive on.

I choose not to put scriptures on my walls at home or here on the blog. Not because those things are not important to me, but because I don't want to cause visitors who might not feel the same way to feel uncomfortable. I would rather my actions and thoughts on this blog show them I am a Christian. It is a "habit" born from my college years, I want them to feel comfortable HERE. If I want to "witness" to them, to show them the love that Jesus shows me, then I must not make them so uncomfortable that I run them off. If my home is full of things that would run them off, then perhaps I'm not witnessing to them...but rather to other people who believe as I do. That is not my goal.

My promise to them is that this is one of the few posts on this subject.

If you do like having scripture, and talk about religious subjects on your blog...that's NOT wrong. It's just not how I do things. I'm not less of a Christian because of it though. It's taken me a long time to realize that fact.

However, there are times when I feel strongly that I should discuss things. Thus, the birth of the Thoughtful Tuesday posts, and sometimes those WILL have to include religious references.