Matthew 10:19-20

I have had this verse (title, please) circling in my head on my way back from Toastmasters today... you know, the one about God giving us the words to say when we are asked to present our testimony.  While not on trial, I felt that He was doing that through me today and I've been meditating on that since I left the meeting.

Today, I had my first official meeting role as the "ah counter" - meaning that I count all of the verbal filler words that people use in their speeches.  I tried to have some fun with that.  For anyone that hasn't been to a Toastmasters meeting before, one of the items on the meeting is "Table Topics" where three volunteers are taken to give a 1 to 2 minute impromptu speech about something that the "table topics master" provides.  I am really working to become a great speaker so I usually volunteer for these things early, but because I had the "ah counter" role today, I didn't immediately throw my hand up.  But, no one was volunteering!  And... the topic was fun... it was "if you could be waved by your fairy godmother, and be, do... anything, what would you want to be, do, etc."  Some of those talks (especially Cooper's today) are pretty fun. 

So, after two folks had to be asked to get up, and this being a fun topic, I decided to volunteer and give my "ah counting sheet" to the guy sitting next to me.  And volunteered...  

The question was "if you could have anything you could want, what would you ask for?"  Those that know me know what the answer to this question is...  so to spare you from the specifics of the picture I painted with my words, I fluidly described the picture of the woman of my dreams walking down the aisle to meet me at the alter with her dad in her arm....  that took about 40 seconds of my time.  I had to fill it with more to qualify for this speech.  

So I continued with...  But that's not where I am now, and how do I live now so that this day (the one I described) is that awesome.  Which I said (I think).

1.) I want to keep myself pure, so that I will indeed be the man she is dying to marry, and 

2.) I want to take advantage of and live my single life to its fullest, so that I have no regrets and bring a lot of great experiences into that new stage of life.

And concluded...  

Now, I wasn't talking to a "Christian" audience, and realized this to myself as I had just talked about keeping myself pure for my wedding day to a group that probably didn't all have the same Judeo-Christian world view that I did.  But somehow, I almost felt that what was said AND that I would be up there saying it was where I was supposed to be during this lunch hour.  In fact, I talked to one guy after the meeting was over that told me that he was really blessed by the "keeping pure" comment.  

Seriously, all I did was open my mouth and it came out.  I think that I myself was (and am) blessed by the words that came out of my mouth.  I'm still a little stunned but know that God will (and has) used it for His glory.  

Amazed.... Chris