She was an older woman.
Not very friendly looking at first glance.

I drill the “don’t talk to strangers” lesson into my children but have also told them that it’s fine to talk if Mommy is right there with them. So they talked with her.

When they weren’t around, she commented, “I never knew I was so interesting that a child would want to talk to me.” 

Later on, I relayed this comment to my kids and told them I was so glad they talked with her. One of them replied, “Well, everybody has thoughts.” And I feel like that’s the goldmine of comments I’ve received this week.

Everybody has thoughts. But we won’t know them unless we ask. All it takes is one person going out of their way to ask a question. That question could be as simple as a sincere “How are you?”

In my children’s case, they were talking with this lady about art. I don’t think the content of that initial conversation is as important as the fact that you take an interest in them enough to share your life and hear about theirs.

There are a lot of ways we can show the love of Christ to those around us.
One of them is just by striking up a conversation, whether or not they look friendly.

Ask questions. Listen.
Because after all, everybody has thoughts.