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Let Your Light Shine

by Joanne Wiklund

Today is the last day of January. We need to take my dad’s advice. If things around us are going too fast, we have to slow down. My Dad was a very verbal person. He had a great laugh and loved to use it. Mom did too. They laughed most at things they did themselves that were truly funny. I don’t recall them laughing at other people in a mean way. Their best sources of entertainment were their five children. They taught us to laugh at ourselves, a gift, really.

Dad or Mom could enter a room and light it up, with a smile, a laugh, a word or show of concern for others. They weren’t perfect people or perfect parents, but I’m really proud God gave me to them. Dad would be in his chair hunkered down. The little boys would fly through the room and go out the front door, one of them slamming it behind them. Dad would sit up and say, “You guys just gotta slow down.” An only child himself, he often followed that by saying, “You know, someday I’m gonna put a revolving door on there.”
 
We speak of someone “lighting up a room,” and the light they spread seems contagious. It’s a light that lifts our spirits and makes our day. I think the sun is like that. When it’s dark, it’s so much easier to feel down, to think negatively about life or even ourselves. A while back I noticed there was still light outside, and realized it was 4:30 p.m. and the sun was still shining. Low in the West, but light. Hang on, folks. Today it was 5:30 p.m. and the sun was just going down. We need to let the Son shine, and our lives will be so much better.
 
1 John 5:7 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7. But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.”
 
III John 13-14 “I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.  Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.