Q: What advice do you give in your seminars about being a godly influence?

A: First, we need to become what I call alert to life—engaging people in conversation and paying attention to their needs. This can be as simple as commenting on a stranger's heavy sigh while you're both waiting in the grocery store line. It's amazing how when you say to someone, "This must be a difficult day for you," she usually will pour out her story to you.

Q: What do you do next?

A: Offer hope. There's a tremendous need for hope in our nation right now because we've been burdened by terrorist attacks, war, and now an uncertain future. What a great time for believers to communicate the hope we have in Christ!

It's good to personalize that hope by putting something of yourself into what you say to others. Often I'll share about a situation in which I felt fear or how I struggled with something I didn't understand, but then a truth I read in the Bible offered hope or understanding. It's good to show how the hope we have as Christians impacts our life.

Q: What results have you seen from being "alert to life"?

A: My late husband and I traveled a lot, so we knew the head skycap at our local airport quite well. He knew we were both Christian speakers and once said, "My wife's like that. She goes to church and seems to know what the Bible's about." From then on, we made it a point to give him Christian books, talk with him about matters of faith, and pray for him.

One day when we saw the skycap at the airport, he said, "I'm going to church now, too." Soon after, he reported he was attending a Bible study. Then came the day when he said, "I'm a Christian!" Last we heard he was teaching a Bible study. It was amazing to watch the way God brought him along step by step. And our little part in this started by paying attention to someone who already was in our life.