Judy’s (my wife) family is such a godly family. It is a family of much love, compassion, and concern for others. What a joy to be with them whenever possible.

Every other Christmas they all try to gather  in Branson, MO. for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. (Our parents have 7 or 8 time share condominiums.) This year (2010) 57 of 69 were able to make it.  Judy’s parents are the ringleaders of the clan (seen in the bottom part of the above picture).

Why am I highlighting the family here? Judy’s parents do their best to lead the family in a true walk with the Lord. Consequently, there are many pastors, pastors’ wives, youth ministers, elders, deacons, teachers, and all of them are servants of God. It is a testimony and an encouragement to others that it is still possible to produce godly offspring, and have a truly committed family to Christ Jesus.

Be encouraged that your family can be a testimony for Christ in this dark world.

(You can click on the picture above, and the one below, to enlarge it.)

Judy is one of 7 sisters (the third, to be exact). At this point, counting parents, sisters and husbands, children, and grandchildren, there are 69 members. Two more will be added within the next 9 months.

“Wait on the Lord.” That is good advice, even if it were not found in Scripture. To wait, however, is probably the hardest thing for the Christian to do.

We could go into depth on the meaning of the word wait, but it wouldn’t make it any easier. It might be more meaningful. We might know more after we had studied. But, we still have to wait. And to paraphrase Shakespeare, “that’s where the rub comes in.”

We could come up with wonderful platitudes: All good things come to those who wait, etc. We could take instruction from the Scriptures which tell us that the husbandman waits for the latter rain. That is what makes the good crops.  But, we still have to wait.

Why does God want us to wait? And why doesn’t He answer right away? Why doesn’t He just shape us into what He wants and be done with it? There are probably myriad answers to those questions. But at least think about this one: In waiting, we discover our nature, and God’s.

While waiting, I discover how impatient and intolerant and unreasonable and incorrigible I am. I get mad at God and others, I get frustrated with myself and think I must be really bad. I go through all the emotions — even more than I thought I had; and I finally begin to discover some things about God. He is patient and tolerant and reasonable and easy to be entreated. When I discover that, it removes my frustration and I discover how much God loves me — enough to allow the best to mature in my life.

Every time I wait, truly wait, I get better at it. In fact, I am almost eager for the opportunity. I discover things that I would never discover any other way. And I find wonderful things to write about.

So I encourage you to learn to wait. Now, please excuse me, I just discovered some wonderful things to write about while I was waiting. Where is my pencil . . .