WHY DO WE WAIT ?

WHY DO WE WAIT?

By God & Leslie

October 11, 2012

Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Life can be gripping sometimes, I take that back, life can be gripping sometimes daily. So many hurting people, so many down faces. Depression runs muck. Anxiety and stress in every household, no exceptions.

Marriages are failing like broken down railroad tracks. New relationships are being formed before the ink is dry on the divorce papers. Children are neglected, abandoned, and or stretched between the families like the doll of years ago called, “Stretch Armstrong”. You could pull his arms and legs and they would stretch quite a distance with out coming out of his sockets. No wonder the generations of today’s children are suicidal, on drugs, obese, struggling with attention disorders, anger and rebellion. They don’t have any one they can trust. No one truly loves them. Babies’ are being born out of wedlock, to babies themselves, bringing in a whole new set of problems. What could possibly make a young girl so unfit to raise her children that her parents would file for custody and raise there grandchildren as if they were there own kids?

The children, how disposable they have become lately!

How careless, parents of today really are. When does your career over take the care of your child? How can you put your child in daycare and allow them to raise your child all so you can have a career? Your child will have there values instilled in them because that is all they have been around. How have we become so irresponsible? Now don’t get your knickers in a twist here. I know there are some that have no choice but to do this, but the truth is, a lot do not have to , they want to. Some were not meant to be parents, and that can be seen in many different areas.

Our pets are being taken care of better than we take care of our children.

Our children are sexually abused at very young ages by a family member. This goes on some times for years, sometimes; most times, one of the parents is the abuser. Most times the child is so afraid; they do not tell anyone for decades. Most times the other parent is unaware. Broken and bruised, from early childhood, who then turns into an adult that does the same thing to there children. And whether you like to think so or not, some of these kids come from Christian homes.

I saw a very young girl standing at a bus stop the other day. Probably waiting for the school bus. I would estimate she was all of 12. Medium height, very thin. She had a lot of face piercings, lots of bangle bracelets on, a head set attached to her phone. She had a fitted hat to her head and bags hanging off her body, like a backpack etc. Her face was so sad. All I could do when I saw her was to whisper a prayer for her. What could be happening in her life for her to look like this? Did she have parents? Was her mom an alcoholic? Was her dad abusive, did she even know who her dad was? Was she bullied in school? Something these days that makes a child commit suicide. I was bullied when I was in school. Kids were mean then, they are out for your kid’s blood in these days.

I by all means did not have perfect parents. They were not Christians. Mom had me when she was 19, still a baby herself back in 1958. My dad’s mother had him out of wedlock. His mother was the daughter of My uncle who put his daughter in a mental institution and took custody of his grandchild, my father (girls did not have children out of wedlock without consequences back then.). My uncle was very abusive to his own children, and now to his only grandchild, my dad. I would not find this out for many years. I would be the first born; I would be the first to experience the abuse of my own father. I would leave home at an early age and marry for the first time, leaving behind a sister two years younger than I and by that time, I would also have a younger brother and sister by 10 years. My sister, two years, behind me would get the brunt of his abuse next.

But both my sister and I had experienced many times that in his rage, my father would take our room down to shreds. Smashing all that was in site, taking our beds and strewing them in our room, then place an old dented, maggot ridden, rusty garbage can in the middle and tell us to clean up the mess. My youngest sister would be in the way at times, and although she got less of the abuse, she can still recall instances. My brother would be 7 years old when my father would have a fatal heart attack at 46 and he would die. My father was a heavy drinker. I never saw him abuse my mother. He appeared to be very kind to her, making her a cup of tea and bringing it to her. But she lived in fear of him for she never did defend her children. She would tell me later that your father has problems. So indeed she knew , but chose to remain silent.

Each of us has had to work through our own issues over the years.

Yet no one came to us and spoke to us about the Lord.

By the grace of God, I was able to stop the generational curse upon my own family. I would regrettably marry a second time, to an alcoholic. He would be verbally abusive, but I would stand between him and the children and he would not lift a hand to them. God would stand between he and I and he would back down. It was a very difficult time in my life. I would accept the Lord in December of 1981. My first Child had been born in February of that year. Our 1^st wedding anniversary was in November of that same year. My life was all about learning God’s way. Hoping, and praying that my husband would accept the Lord, our lives would change, and we would live happily ever after. My husband would finally accept the Lord three years after me. But he would immediately test the Lord by going out and having a cigarette, and a swig of liquor. He would state, “God did not take it away!” We would have a son in 1984, our daughter then 3. Just shy of our sons 1^st birthday, our daughter would be diagnosed with cancer. Our lives would forever change, again. An alcoholic husband, a baby, and a child with cancer, more than any normal family could handle.

It was by God’s grace and HIS grace only I could deal with the daily things!

Why do we wait so long to tell our children that we love them? Why do we wait before we protect them from the wiles of the enemy? Why do we wait before we except the Lords invitation? We hear it! But we choose to say no, and hold off on any decision till later in our lives.

Not realizing later may be to late.

Why do we wait till we get that dreaded diagnosis of cancer before we finally get it that we must change our ways? How we live our lives greatly affects us. If you think that eating at fast food restaurants daily, consuming handfuls of candy ,drinking sweet tea , soda, pots of coffee, smoking and consuming alcohol daily does not effect your health, you are sadly mistaken. You do not see these things in your younger years when you are partaking in this lifestyle. But as you continue down this road, your health clearly is affected. If you internalize the abuse of your past, and put it into the bottle, you will become one with the bottle. If you were used in a relationship which produced a child, then the hurt of that relationship will cause you to immerse in activities that will hurt you and your child or children later on. How do you think most of today’s illnesses come about?

God made our bodies to withstand so much, but there is a fine balance that must be kept.

Why do we wait to tell our parents we love them in this life, for when they are gone, you carry the regret of not doing so. Why do we wait to tell our kids they are doing a good job? Don’t you know that a little bit of encouragement goes a long way?

Why do we wait to tell others about the Lord? Some of you grew up around others who are not Christians. They may be a class mate, a neighbor, or a co-worker. You all have shared lots of things, except the Lord. Now someone in your midst is down a path of very bad health, suffering with Breast Cancer . She does not know the Lord as you do, but have you spoken with her about her salvation? You have no idea what she will undergo or if she will even make it out of surgery.

Where she will spend eternity is knocking at her door. What are you waiting for?

I had a step father, who for years would say he was going to hell on an elevator. I spoke to him many times, and so did others. He attended some church functions, but did not have anything to do with church involvement. His first wife and he divorced, and he married my mother. He was my father’s best friend and after my father’s death, they married. This man was in my life since before I was born. Our families spent lots of time together, but the thought that one day this man would be my step father was never thought of. My mother had accepted the Lord well before they got married, but this man, would have nothing to do with it. When my mother died, he tried to pick up the pieces and his health worsened, and he came upon his death bed. It was in his dying days, did he call for the preacher, and finally, death knocking at his door, one foot in the fiery pits of hell, accepted the Lord as his own.

He heard the gospel many times, but why did he wait so long?

This life is not about us! This life is all about the Lord! This life is all about death, for in the end we will be in one place or the other. We have one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to share with others the Love of the Lord. To show them JESUS! To show them that God sent His only son to die on the cross for them and for them alone. To show them, that they are loved and have been loved when no one else loved them. To show them, they have a choice.

The fact is we will all die. Some at a young age, some very old, but we will all die.

How irresponsible of us not to share with those close to us, who are not yet under the Lords wings, that they can rejoice if the death angle comes knocking at there door today. How selfish of us, if we do not share HIM with those who are hurting, battered and bruised by life. He came for the broken!

How many funerals will you attend in your life time? How many will be someone you knew? How many of them will be lost? How many of them, as you stand there and cry that they were lost, did you have an opportunity to speak to about the Lord? If you did not reach out, then you have the right to cry. Cry because one day, you will stand before the Lord, and He will ask you why you did not speak to him or her. Just because they are not religious, does not mean you can’t send them a card with scripture in it. God said His word won’t return void. How can they believe in the Lord if they do not see Him in you?

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all shouldcome to repentance.

The Lord waited, as HE hung on the cross, for the thief to surrender his life over.

Luke 23:43
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

As the two of them hung there. The Lord told him that today he would be in paradise with him.Just that quickly. So yes, it is possible to get saved on your death bed, but why should we wait for that day?

Look around you today, just in your little corner of the world. Who do you see that needs to know that Jesus loves them? Sometimes you don’t get a second or even a third chance with someone.

Always My Love For You, Leslie