Three weeks before Christopher's fourth Christmas, he was having trouble understanding there was nothing he could do to make it come any sooner. So we came up with a plan. We circled December 25 on a calendar posted on the refrigerator and each evening, Christopher's job was to mark off another day. Less than a week into this ritual, my wife and I went out while a babysitter watched Christopher. When we arrived home, our son was fast asleep. But in the kitchen, he certainly had been busy. Every day up to December 25th had been marked with a big black X. —Paul M. Hampton, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Christian Reader, "Kids of the Kingdom."
Lamentations 3:26 (NET1) It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the LORD.
James 5:7 (NIV) Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.
Romans 8:22-25 (NIV) 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Today's Best Illustrations – Volume 5, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "IMPATIENCE".
