Don't Be Afraid of the Word 'No'
by Kara Dawson
A lot of times we don't ask certain questions because we are afraid of this little two letter word. That word is 'No.' Which is not usually the answer we want. That word tends to prevent so many people from asking questions for fear that will be the answer. Questions like, "Will you go on a date with me?" or something more simple, "Will you go to church with me?" It seems like asking your friend to go to church with you would be easy. But it isn't really, because there is that 50/50 chance that the answer will be that two letter word many of us fear. I have this friend, she and I are really close. I can ask her anything. But when it came to asking her if she wanted to go to church with me, it was a little harder. I finally decided that I wanted to ask, I wanted to step out of my "comfort zone" and ask her. I thought about it and the very worst that could happen was she would say “No.” Which if you think about it, isn't all that bad. Then I thought, “The best that could happen, she would say “Yes!” So I asked her the simple question, "Do you want to go to church with me?" She replied excitedly, "YES!" She then told me she had never been to church. Her family never went and her friends never asked. The next Wednesday she came over right after school. I asked her if she wanted to volunteer with me at Friendship Place before church. She said, "Yeah, that sounds like fun!" So we did just that. She loved it! Then after that we went to church! She isn't shy so she played kick ball with everyone and she had a blast! After youth group was over and Darin had spoken, she looked at me and said, "Can I ask that guy if I can have a Bible!" Surprised and excited I said, "Yes, come here, we will go ask!" She asked Darin and he went to get one for her. She said to me that she had never even held a Bible before. When Darin came back with the Bible, he said she could only have it if she told him what she thought. She smiled and said "Okay." He then asked, "Where are you going to start." She was a little confused, thinking don't you usually start at the beginning of a book? She replied with, "ummm, Page 1..." The next day she texted me and said, “I read Genesis!” I was shocked! She went home Wednesday night and read the book of Genesis. I asked her what she thought of it and she said “things made sense now, the world was created by God!” To tell you the truth I can't even explain how I felt right then. If I had not asked her that simple question, "Do you want to go to church with me?" None of this would have happened! She now, enjoys reading the bible. She actually said to me one day when we were hanging out. "Kara, I haven't read the whole bible yet." I said, "That's okay, You don't need to feel bad I still haven't read the whole Bible, and I have had a Bible since before I could read." She was relieved! She also LOVES volunteering with me at Friendship place, and she is always excited to go to church with me. All this happened because I asked the simple question, “Do you want to go to church with me?”
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