Avon calling...during testimony?!?

I can’t help it, I am an observer. This probably stems from being painfully shy and somewhat under tall (read: fat) in my youth. I became adept at people watching. So it will come as no surprise to some that know me that I sometimes scan the congregation during church services. Which was precisely what I was doing during the testimony portion of a church service recently.

I like listening to testimonies, I like seeing how God has worked with His children throughout the week. Sometimes they are joyful and your spirit is enlarged just listening to the words expressed, sometimes they are full of sorrow at facing another trial and your heart breaks in commiseration. Regardless of their content testimonies bring us closer together. As I sat there listening, I happened to look down the row I was sitting in and across the aisle I saw two young girls paging through a magazine. At first I thought I need to get my glasses checked. Did I really see them actually paging through a MAGAZINE? I leaned over and asked the sister sitting next to me if they were really looking at a magazine…during testimony! She whispered back, “Yes.” As I looked a little closer, I realized that it was, in fact, an Avon book!!

Now I do not personally have any problem with Avon, or those that sell their products. I’ve purchased Avon in the past and may again. However, two tween-agers perusing this publication while in church sticks in my craw, if you’ll pardon the expression. After the initial wave of shock and incredulity passes, a few questions come to mind. Is nail polish selection so important that we must look at the offerings during church? I missed the memo on that one. Maybe Skin-So-Soft is an absolute must have to be properly outfitted for church. Maybe it IS important to have coordinating eye shadow, blush and lipstick! Again, if this is true I am woefully misinformed. Why does this bother me?

I could say that it bothers me because it is inappropriate to read beauty product magazines in church. I think that many would agree with that statement. But that’s not really what bothers me. What bothers me is that unless some positive impact can be made we run the risk of missing our window of opportunity to influence these two girls. And we must influence them; we have a responsibility to do just that. Outside the church doors they have a million things clamoring for their attention. School, music, TV, sports, clubs, video games, cell phones, movies, books the list is endless. In church we have a scant 2 or 3 hours to help them to come to the conclusion that God matters, church matters, our fellow brothers and sisters matter. I worked with a woman who attended church but no one in her family did. She would try to impact her grown children and remind them that you couldn’t use God as a spare tire. Only taking Him out when you’re stranded and when everything is going smoothly, keep Him locked up in the trunk. I fear that unless we can make a difference, our 2 young girls will be looking for road-side assistance instead of having the ability to contact God directly.

It would be nice if I could say that here is the answer. Sadly, I don’t have a quick and easy one to give. Here is what I do know. I wasn’t always this aware. As a young girl my mind wandered in church, although bringing a magazine of any kind to church was never going to happen, I wasn’t immune to being distracted or not really paying attention to what was happening during a service. But I was also fortunate that my older sisters in Christ took an interest in me. They interacted with me and tried to understand where I was coming from and maybe more importantly where I was going. They impacted my life. When I think about the times I confessed silly things to my older sisters in Christ and how they were always attentive to me, listening carefully and offering good, sound advice, I wince a little and have an overwhelming need to nominate them for a medal of honor or something. If the work of the Lord is one eternal round, then it is my turn to be involved and interested and invest in the future of the young women in the making around me. I realize that I can’t just look at them and say nothing, that I should be compelled to be attentive to them, to try to begin a dialog, to listen when I really want to correct, to offer understanding when it would be easier to just tell them what I would do in a similar situation. If I could do this, with God’s help of course, I might be able to make an impact; we might be able to make an impact. And maybe, just maybe, the love of God that has been planted deep within us will triumph over the distractions of waterproof mascara.