I
have 6 brothers and sisters, and I'm the youngest. Unfortunately, until this
past year or so, I haven't been close to any of them. But I have one sister,
Priscilla, who is amazing. In fact, I've always known she was amazing but as
sisters go, it's best not to tell them that. :) I'm joking of course. She got married this past August and
oddly enough, we got closer because of that. (Priscilla's the one in the
wedding dress; her twin, Joy is on the right). Priscilla is the one of the many
people who has drastically impacted my beliefs.

First
a little background with my family, I have really struggled with being a
Christian around them. Weird, I know, because with the exception of one sister,
we all claim Jesus as our Lord. But our actions speak much louder than our words;
in fact I'm almost positive that if we truly acted the way we spoke, my unsaved
sister would be more open to the gospel. But until then she sees only our
hypocrisy.

So
it was weird when Priscilla started asking me over to her apartment or just to
hang out. She started to reach out to me and humbly expressed her love for me.
Now that may seem like that‘s what sisters are supposed to do, but never have I
seen it in my family. We are very much into intelligence and having a
discerning eye, which nine times out of ten means being critical instead of
showing love. Her sacrificial act of going first and even just saying, "I like
being around you" was revolutionary.  Or
when I told her I felt stuck spiritually, she didn't tell me I was going to
hell, but gave me this awesome book by Beth Moore, "Get out of that Pit".  She has taught me so much about the grace
and love of God. Her words echo in my ears about the simple truth that God is
not like my family, He sees me as holy. It's like the past pain and
unforgiveness has been washed away by a few kind words that she said in faith.

Now
with that mutual respect I can have the strength to not be the "defensive
youngest one", but a peer Christian with my siblings. I changed from being two
different people, the nice, encouraging Hope at my youth group and school and
the crabby silent-type at home. If I were an English major I would be able to
accurately describe how colossal this change has been. With increased
communication, I had the confidence to stop comparing myself to my sisters and
start supporting them and letting them help me. I can see unity finally
emerging in my family and I'm excited to miss them when I go off to college,
instead of using college as an escape. I hope one day to be so transformed that
my unsaved sister cannot help but choose God because only He could do the
impossible in our bitter hearts.