👨‍👩‍👧‍👧Waiting- hurts ☹

 

The fate of parents is to wait for their children. They wait during pregnancy, they wait after school, they wait for them to return home after a night out. They wait as their children start their own lives. They wait for them to come home from work to a warm dinner. They wait with love, with anxiety, and sometimes with fleeting anger that dissipates as soon as they see their children and can embrace them.

Make sure your elderly parents don't have to wait any longer. Visit them, love them, hug the ones who loved you like no one else ever will. Don't keep them waiting; they're expecting this from you.

Because bodies age, but the hearts of parents never grow old. Love them as much as you can. No one will love you like your parents do. ❤️

What is love ? True story

 WHAT IS LOVE?

Years ago,  when I lived in *Lugbe,* a suburb in *Abuja,* a number of girls lived in a building adjacent to me. They strictly lived to be picked up by men.  

The girls will *go out at night* and return the following *morning.*  I, and other neighbors were *angry.*  The girls were very noisy.  They never cared who their noise disturbed.

One day, the landlord had enough. *He evicted all of them.* Their properties were thrown out. All the girls found somewhere else to relocate, *except one.* She had no place to go.

She kept her belongings in our building corridor, and on nights that she was home, she'd sleep there... *and that was on most nights.*

The tenants in the building, *including my husband and I,* met to plan how to put her and her belongings out. *Surprisingly,* one tenant, *a woman* was against the idea. She asked, "What would you all do if this girl was *your daughter, sister or relative?"* She told us that this girl and her friends have, no doubt made *wrong choices.* But she reminded us that we too, *at some point* in our past also made wrong  choices. But God still held us close to His heart and saved us.  She cautioned us as Christians to *consider what Jesus would do.*

Everyone was quiet. But none suggested any way to help the *now homeless* lady. 

Later on, the same woman who defended her at the tenant meeting had a talk with her husband. They agreed to house the girl *in their moderate apartment.*

They invited the girl into their home and told her she could stay with them. The homeless girl was shocked when the woman said to her, *"We know what you do for a living.* And you are free to go out at night and come back the next day if that's what you choose to do. Feel free to eat our food. Use the other bedroom. It is yours *as long as you live here.* Live like one of us. We did not bring you in to judge you. But we will continue to pray for you. Hopefully, the spirit will talk to you..., *at your own time."* 

_The girl was dumbfounded._ And she cried. At nights, *she stayed home.* Going out to look for men gradually became a thing of her past. 

She would join the family for morning devotion *and go to church with them on Sundays.*

One day, the woman, *now her landlord of sorts* told her of her husband's decision to pay for her to register in a university. The lady gained admission into a university. *She graduated on top of her class* and got a good job.  But even before she graduated, with a university grant for outstanding students, *she had started a business* of her own. 

Today, when you enter her office, she has this woman and her husband's photo on the wall behind her desk. The photo has the inscription, _*" " 'My parents,' the only Christians I know''.*_

Folks, what is love? Many Christians cannot answer to this question. We resist the true essence of love.

The truth is, "Christ died for us.'' Why would a righteous man die for sinners? That's what love is.

What can you do for someone even against your intrinsic instincts?

Every one we have chosen not to forgive, deserve forgiveness.  That is the sacrifice that a true Christian, who shows true love makes. 

*Love is not the practice of loving beautiful people. True love is shown by being willing to truly love those that many look down upon.*

_*How many less fortunate people have you taken home from church after service to feed?  Why do we feed the rich, and don't feed the needy?*_

Why do we scorn people who look like prostitutes? We look at children who look unkept and we shake our heads in disapproval, warning our children to avoid such people.

But what kind of people do we think that heaven is waiting up there for? 

Let's not lose the purpose of life because of what we have almost achieved.

Can someone say of you, *"I met a true believer in you?"* 

_Copied._

¿¿ WAIT ¿¿

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:

Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,

And the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait”.


“Wait? You say, wait! ” my indignant reply.

“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By Faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I can relate

hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me to WAIT?


I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,

or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised that if we believe

we need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!


Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”


So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut

and grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting…. for what?”


He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,

And he tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want

But, you wouldn’t know Me.


You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint;

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint;

You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence were all you could see.


You’d never experience that fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and I save…. (for a start),

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.


The glow of My comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight,

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked

Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.


You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that “My grace is sufficient for Thee.”

Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,

But, Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I’m doing in you!


So, be silent, My Child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.

And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, “WAIT.”