Have Patience!

I was amazed to see this article in a weekly community magazine:

VIRTUE OF THE WEEK:

PATIENCE

Patience is quiet hope and trust that things will turn out right.

You wait without complaining.

You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes.

You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals.

Patience is a commitment to the future.

You are practicing patience when you...

• Calmly tolerate a delay or confusion.
• Are willing to wait for things you want.
• Set goals and persevere until they are met.
• Do something now that will help you in the future.
• Accept things you cannot change with humour and grace.
• Are tolerant when mistakes are made.

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
-John Quincy Adams

"Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains."
-William Penn

2002 Virtues Project International Inc
http://www.virtuesproject.com/

This article is from a secular source, but I thought there was a lot of good insight shown. I would add my own observation that I really don't know what guarantee we have that things will turn out right apart from God.

This is our guarantee:

"The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one.
He was apalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm worked salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him."
Isaiah 59:15b,16

"In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."
Isaiah 42:3b, 4

I love the line, "He will not be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."
Who else can work endlessly for justice without being discouraged?
That is our assurance that ultimately things will turn out right!

Today I need patience - we're in the midst of another spring snowstorm!

We're Grandparents to Twins!

Today Mary and Martha legally belong to Darrell and Jess.
We now have 5 grandchildren with the 6th on the way.
At Christmas time we just had 2! God is good!

Our African children!

It was in February 09 that they first got the referral of twin girls.

On April 23/09, exactly a year ago today, they got a phone call from Social Services to come in for a meeting. They went the next morning and were told the orphanage was shutting down and the adoption would not go through.

That day Jess blogged, "We feel sick and are hoping this is just a bad nightmare and maybe I will wake up from it... Please pray that we will be able to bring our girls home. I am trying to just trust God knowing I have no control over any of it."

The title of that blog entry was "Very Bad Day".

Well, today is a "Very Good Day"!

Today, a year later, the girls are theirs!!!
Don't you just love how God does neat things like this?

It reminds me that Darrell was born a year to the day after we got word that Social Services had a little boy for us (Jon) after 5 years of waiting for children. After seemingly endless waiting, we had 2 within a year! and I don't believe the dates were coincidental.

I believe that the dates of a year to a day is God's way of reminding us that He is in control of everything, including waiting times, and He has a set date when our prayers will be answered.

Thanks be to Him!

K-bob practices his l's!

Hair-raising Trip!

We had a spring snowstorm at home, and then the next day as we travelled east, caught up to it again. Four times the traffic was totally stopped on the highway. We couldn't always see why. It was so windy the trucks were being blown off the highway, or across it, and then the traffic stopped. Once we went into the passing lane to get by the lineup, once we passed on the shoulder on the right, and twice we went into a famer's field. If we'd waited in the lineup, I'm sure we would have been there overnight.

After a truck slid sideways, all other trucks stopped as well. Some of the lineups were about 50 trucks long! Cars could sometimes get by, sometimes not.

In many places the road was good and then all of a sudden you'd turn a corner or go into a slight dip in the road and be surprised by snow that had blown across the highway. The unpredictability of it is what sent so many into the ditch.

From the field, we could see the huge lineups.

Notice the logo on the truck on the center-bottom picture!

We thank the Lord we arrived safely.

The drive home again was much less adventuresome.

Happy Birthday Tim!

You were a great kid to raise!

You survived being the youngest!
Have a happy day. Looking forward to seeing you.

Ahh... Spring in B.C.

Irene always makes sure she has plenty of primroses inside and out.

Our Apricot Tree

I couldn't believe how many birds we saw and heard. Great to hear the quails again!

We spent three days working on our house - Mal pruned and fixed and I cleaned and painted trim.

Irene prepared us a lovely Easter Dinner - cedar bbq'd salmon.
Thanks, sis!