Do you walk into your grocery store proclaiming your faith? Do you walk into the public library to proclaim and testify on your faith? When the timing is right, it’s a good thing. But it’s not done every place you go to.

I copied those words from an email I received yesterday. The response I gave to the author of the email was, “yes, I do often walk into the grocery store or the local library and proclaim my faith.  Perhaps not loudly, but with my actions and the message printed on my t-shirt.” What came to mind was a quote most often credited to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel always, when necessary use words.”

The words in the email didn’t bother me so much as knowing the author is a Christian did. In Mark 16:15, Jesus told his disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” He didn’t say to preach only in certain places or only “when the timing is right.” He just said to GO. I don’t think that was meant only for the disciples all those years ago. This was meant for all of the followers of Christ.

We don’t need to be showy about our faith. We can live it out, preaching with our actions everywhere we go. A friend recently wrote on Facebook “I’d rather be a humble little turtle with un-noticed good works than a big headed baboon that’s praised for flashin’ around his big blue butt!” Even if my “good works” are unnoticed here on Earth, they are noticed in Heaven. And who’s to say that the door I hold open for the mom with five children won’t also open a door to Heaven for her?

I am not going to deny my faith. I refuse to let anyone make me feel ashamed of the gospel and of the love that I have for Christ. If that means I offend someone in the grocery store or in the library or in an internet chat room, so be it. Better to offend on Earth than risk offending my God in Heaven.

So I will proclaim my faith. I will act it out in all I do. I am not doing it to be a baboon and get attention for myself. I am doing it because the love of Christ is so great within me that I cannot keep it to myself.

I will share my faith because that is what Jesus wants me to do.

Earlier this week, I heard my pastor talking about something that he does with couples in pre-marriage counseling. He said that one thing he does with each couple is ask them to prepare two lists. One is 10 good things about the soon-to-be spouse; the other is 10 bad things about the soon-to-be spouse. Though I have been married for ten years, I thought this might be a good exercise for me to do. Well, the first half of it anyway. There isn’t much I can do about the “bad” things about my hubby. They are part of what makes me love him. And the things that really annoy me about him…. Well, those go into my God Can.

My God Can? Well, it’s really more of a box. But it sits on my desk and holds notes on things that I can’t do anything about, things I have given over to God because I know that He CAN handle them!

Anyway, 10 good things about my husband. Some of these came very easy to me. They popped into my mind almost immediately. The others…. Let’s just say I had to have some help from God to fill all 10 spaces on this list!

Here, in no particular order, are my Top Ten favorite things about the man I married.

1. He thinks I am sexy. I don’t get it. I sure don’t see what he sees when he looks at me. But I sure am glad that he sees it!
   
2. He is willing to help with housework. Since he grew up in a home where Dad worked and Mom cleaned, that is pretty amazing to me.
   
3. He is a good dad. No, he doesn’t stop what he is doing every time the kids ask him to. I don’t do that, either. If we did, we’d never get anything done at all! But there is very little in life that gives me as much joy as watching my “big boy” play with the little ones.
   
4. He likes to spend time with family. And I don’t just mean me and our sons. My hubby enjoys spending time with his siblings, with my siblings, and with my parents.
   
5. He has an awesome sense of humor. My husband is not always good with power tools or home improvement projects, and he is not much of an outdoors kind of guy. Once, he even managed to light the church Advent wreath on fire. But he can laugh about it, and even accepts the good natured ribbing he gets from family and friends about his, um, short-comings.
   
6. He is a good care-taker. I kind of knew that even before we were married. His mother suffered a series of strokes, and he made sure she got the best possible care and that she was able to live in her home for as long as possible. Over the ten years of our marriage, I have been on the receiving end of his care-taking skills more than I have wanted to be. He has made sure that I rested when I needed to rest and that I was able to take the time to heal correctly. According to my most recent surgeon, not every husband is like that.
   
7. He works hard to support his family. A couple of years back, he graduated from a local business college with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. The plan was for him to stay in his factory job only short-term after graduation, so that he could find a job that allowed him to make use of his degree. Unfortunately, he graduated at about the same time our local economy went south. I know he doesn’t really like his job much. It’s not something that is very difficult or interesting. Yet he knows the paycheck and the health insurance are something our family would have a hard time surviving without. I greatly appreciate that he is willing to do that.
   
8. He supports my dream of being a best-selling novelist. It’s not an easy career path in any way. There are more weeks that go by without the sale of a book than weeks when I sell any. Though I have started writing articles for a few paying markets, I have yet to make money at that. But my hubby is OK with that. We are doing fine financially right now. So maybe that is why it is “easy” for him to be supportive. Whatever it is, he is behind me 100%. He even told me once that he is biding his time, waiting until I have a best-seller or two under my belt so he can stay home and be supported by his “sugar momma”.
   
9. He makes me feel safe. I don’t know if it is his height—six foot, four inches—that makes me feel so secure when we are together. Actually, I know that it is more than just his height. I know that he would give everything to protect me and our children.
   
10. He loves the Lord. This one might be the most important. When we first began dating, I heard some discouraging remarks from family friends about the different religious backgrounds that my husband and I had. He was raised in a Catholic home. I was raised in a Protestant home. My family was in church every Sunday morning as well as most Sunday and Wednesday nights. And we attended as a family. His church attendance had been more sporadic since the death of his father. One “friend” even commented that it was not Biblical for me to date a man who did not have a personal relationship with God, making it sound as if I was making the biggest mistake of my life. I’m glad I didn’t listen, though. I think the biggest mistake would have been ignoring my heart and not allowing this man into my life.
    

Oh, there are more things I love about him. I especially love the smile that comes on my face when he walks into the room and the electric “tingle” I get when he smiles at me or holds my hand. But these ten things are the things that I appreciate the most about him. I am so grateful for the gift that God gave me in John McMonigal.