Hello Minister,<\/p>\n
My question is, what should I do about my younger sister, who came to me in private about her walk? She is a young single mother who is getting by in life. She works all the time and is very tired on Sunday mornings. She only goes to church once every couple of months, if even. Before I got married and moved, I went with her every Sunday. I’ve known her my whole life, and she is very calm and stoic most of the time. She says she wonders if she should still be a Christian even though she can’t get into it like that. She says she doesn’t want to be fake with God knowing she doesn’t do her part. She has been in the faith for about 7-9 months and is in her early 20’s. We have talked to each other and other church members about inviting her to church, but she respectfully declines to go because of tiredness, sickness, etc. I’m unsure what to do or tell her because I’ve tried before. It just seems like this may be her last straw from her words.<\/p>\n\t
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace<\/em>” (Luke 14:26-32).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It appears that your sister has overcommitted herself. When you are young and full of energy, it is easy to keep all the balls you are juggling up in the air for a time, but you don’t have an endless supply of energy, so something is neglected. Your sister chooses to let her relationship with God and His people drop. You’re not there any longer to push her.<\/p>\n
Over the years, I’ve also noticed that when people stop attending, it is often due to problems with sin that make them reluctant to be around brethren. Her statement about being concerned about being a fake Christian makes me wonder if this is a part of her problem.<\/p>\n
It sounds like people are doing what they can. Your sister just doesn’t want to go. She sees it as an obligation and doesn’t think she is getting anything out of her effort. In other words, at the core of everything, she is lacking faith.<\/p>\n
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:35-39).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello Minister, My question is, what should I do about my younger sister, who came to me in private about her walk? She is a young single mother who is getting by in life. She works all the time and is very tired on Sunday mornings. She only goes to church once every couple…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1687],"class_list":["post-68339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attendence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25515,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-we-do-about-a-sister-who-left-after-being-a-christian-for-a-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":0},"title":"What do we do about a sister who left after being a Christian for a year?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question that has been bothering me for a while. A sister in Christ left the church for a reason that I am still confused about. She became a Christian about a year ago and seemed really happy about her decision. She was faithful, committed, and opened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35047,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-sister-is-involved-in-drugs-and-left-the-church-how-do-i-deal-with-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":1},"title":"My sister is involved in drugs and left the church. How do I deal with her?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My heart is heavy.\u00a0 My sister and her husband are no longer in the church. They have chosen a worldly lifestyle, and tell their children, one of whom is baptized, that they don't need to go to church to get to heaven and that churches are full of hypocrites.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-handle-someone-making-rude-remarks-in-a-public-forum\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":2},"title":"How do I handle someone making rude remarks in a public forum?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi there, I have a question, as much as I hate to even ask it. A sister has set up a church \"group\" on Facebook designed to encourage, update and remind each other of different things. Many members are a part of this group, male and female. The sister,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54614,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-my-friend-leave-her-husband-so-she-can-worship-the-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":3},"title":"Should my friend leave her husband so she can worship the Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. This question is regarding my colleague. She was born in a Hindu family but accepted Jesus in her youth. Her parents did not allow her to marry a Christian, so she married a Hindu, concealing the fact that she was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92373,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-church-have-the-right-to-remove-from-its-roll-a-member-who-no-longer-lives-in-the-area\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":4},"title":"Does a church have the right to remove from its roll a member who no longer lives in the area?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, I have been reading your articles and learning a lot from your Bible teachings. Thank you for all you do and for your heart to spread the Truth. Here's my question: There's a sister in our Church who was reached out while working as a house helper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-girlfriend-isnt-a-christian-and-i-dont-know-what-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":68339,"position":5},"title":"My girlfriend isn’t a Christian and I don’t know what to do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been dating my girlfriend for almost two months. We have now run into some problems with each other. I will admit that she is not a Christian. I wanted to try and bring her to Christ. Her parents are divorced and her mom has a man living\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}