By Joey & Carla Link
August 23, 2023
Waiting doesn’t come easily for most of us. Kids jump up and down in anticipation of something they want to do. In our spirits, so do we! Unless you were born with the Phlegmatic temperament, waiting is just plain hard. If those with the Melancholy temperament have to wait too long for something, they will use the time to think of all the possible worst-case scenarios to the extent they dread the upcoming event. Those with the Choleric and Sanguine temperaments are impatient, so waiting for them is a chore. What does it mean to wait? It means to stay put or to delay doing something until a certain amount of time has passed or until it is scheduled to happen. Or in the case of our dear friends Kevin and Julie, until they see signs of improvement. Their son, Niall, 18 years old was driving home from work one night when a drunk driver ahead of him spun out of control, hit the telephone pole and it fell into the rural highway. According to what the police on the scene think happened, Niall pulled over and got out of the car to help direct traffic until the police showed up when the next oncoming car hit him. He suffered a severe brain injury and has been hospitalized for 3 weeks now. While this happened 4 hours from where we live, Kevin and Julie have not left his side since they arrived at the hospital. They are waiting, working hard to do so patiently. Not only are they waiting, they left behind in the capable care of grandparents and other family their other children at home, 3-17 yrs. These kids are waiting too. They are waiting for their brother to get better and for their parents to come home so things will get back to normal. Do you think their 3 yr old understands why her mommy and daddy have been gone for 3 weeks now? Do you know why she is okay waiting? Because her older siblings are. This is another good reason to train your children in Godly virtues. Thankfully, Kevin and Julie have taken the parenting class “Growing Kids God’s Way” by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo with us many times and their children are characterized by obedience and they do know how to wait better than most kids their ages. When it comes to training our kids, we all too often say “I’ll get to that later,” or we try to teach our kids something like patience, and when nothing changes in a couple days, we give up and let them push and shove their way through their siblings to be first. If there is one thing we hope you get from this blog, it would be this: Later needs to be Now! God supplies all our needs, but He does not give us everything we want, no matter how hard we pray for it. Waiting for God to answer our prayers the way we want Him to is not wise. Waiting for God to answer our prayers the way He wants to shows wisdom and maturity. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”Romans 12:12 |
Will you join us please in praying for Niall Dameron? We have known him since the day he was born and our hearts ache to see him fighting to get his brain to regain its function again. If you would like to see his progress, you can see Kevin’s prayer requests on our “Joey and Carla Link” Facebook page. Please join the global team of prayer warriors interceding our Heavenly Father on Niall’s behalf. Please also pray for Niall’s siblings, that God would give them an abundance of patience and peace while they wait. When kids are upset about something, they have different ways of acting out. Please also pray for the family members caring for the children that God would give them an abundance of patience as well. |