Participants: Rachel Matthews, Kathy Matthews, Rick Kuntz
Series Code: TAH
Program Code: TAH000146
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00:32 Welcome to Thinking About Home and this is
00:33 Kathy Matthews and I'm thankful that 00:36 you're back with us again. Our last program 00:38 we were dealing with the pain and bitterness 00:41 and rejection and see how God's grace can 00:44 really help us to get through those kinds of 00:46 experiences in our lives. God is trying to help 00:50 us get our minds off of ourselves. And we're 00:53 discovering that in our experiences and our 00:56 guest is Rick Kuntz, he is Pastor and Evangelist, 00:59 and we're thankful that you're here with us again. 01:01 You've got quite a story. Well it's a great joy 01:04 to be with you again today and we're really 01:07 thankful for the way that God is teaching us, 01:10 I think that's our greatest privilege as Christians 01:12 that God shows more and more of how 01:14 he looks at life. And you know I was sharing before 01:18 about some of the struggles we went through. 01:21 You can give us a little review then. Yeah. 01:24 as we got our boys we found out very quickly 01:26 within a matter of hours that we're in for quite 01:29 an experience and that they weren't going 01:30 to just change, because they were in a stable home, 01:35 and a lot of pain. Right. And these were adopted 01:37 boys. Let's just clear that up, these were 01:39 adopted boys from Guatemala, 01:41 Guatemala that's right. And you had a little 01:43 girl in your home, yeah. And her name is Hannah, 01:46 right. At that time she was how old? 01:49 She was 2 and half, when you brought the boys 01:51 into the home and they were how old? 01:53 They were 10 and 6. And you had a serious 01:57 experience with rage, didn't you? Yeah. 01:59 They had been abused and they had a lot of 02:02 pain in their hearts and so their bitterness 02:05 was just poured out all over us. 02:08 And it was like being hit with a freight train, 02:10 it was an amazing experience. 02:13 And as I shared in the last time when we spend 02:15 together that I had come to a time where 02:18 I was willing to surrender and let God work in me 02:21 and accept this divine providence 02:23 he had brought to our family. And after that. 02:27 You said you just really learned about love 02:29 in this whole experience, right. 02:31 What love really demands? That's right. 02:33 And how love really works and it was just 02:36 going through, it was painful but even going 02:39 through it we had times of incredible insight 02:43 and even some feelings of positiveness and 02:47 blessing from the Lord. We saw little evidences 02:49 of God touching our, you know one of our boys 02:53 or touching our daughter or encouraging my wife, 02:55 this gave you hope. Gave us hope. 02:57 You know as we continued to look through the 02:59 promises of God. But it wasn't, it wasn't, 03:03 it didn't happened overnight. 03:04 And after about three years our son Carlos, 03:08 he was 13 by then decided, he just wasn't willing, 03:12 he just told, he told us later that he had 03:16 totally hated us. He blamed us for all the, 03:19 when he came? Yeah, and it just built. 03:22 And so by the time he was 13 he was doing 03:23 everything and he could to turn our daughter 03:26 and his brother against us. And so the Holy Spirit 03:30 helped me to realize that you know I couldn't 03:33 allow him to stay in the home. 03:35 Be at the same time. So he must have been 03:37 experiencing, but you were home-schooling 03:39 before right, yeah, do you wanna talk about that? 03:40 Yeah, we were home-schooling the boys 03:42 and then we took Carlos to a Christian school 03:46 for a year and it was a little helpful but 03:49 in the home he had one goal and that was 03:52 to destroy our family. How could he blame you 03:57 when he had been 10 years in an environment 03:59 that was devastating in Guatemala? 04:02 We were the only ones close enough and 04:05 showed enough love to be able to blame, 04:06 to be able to blame I see. And that's what, 04:09 it's hard for us to figure out as human beings 04:12 and as parents why sometimes do our kids 04:15 if they're in trouble or difficulties or heartache, 04:18 why don't they take it out on us? It's because 04:20 we are the only safe people in their life. 04:23 And you know we got to be willing to just allow them. 04:25 To hurt the one you love most, or hurt the one 04:27 that's closest to you or loving you the most, 04:29 yeah. Isn't that what we do to Christ? 04:31 That's right. And that's, this transition that 04:33 God's trying to put in our minds of how we work 04:36 with people everybody we work with. 04:38 Is that, we're an extension of God's love and that 04:40 God is still the healer. And he can heal that 04:44 when someone rejects us today and someone 04:46 just tears us apart verbally or emotionally 04:48 whatever is today we can go to the healer, 04:50 Jesus and he can heal that in our hearts and 04:53 continue to create his love in us you know day by day. 04:57 So I struggle with that. And not before tomorrow 05:00 but just today. That's right. 05:01 Yeah, we wait till tomorrow it will be dead 05:04 by the time tomorrow comes spiritually. 05:06 Okay now I've interrupted you about, that's okay. 05:08 So I came to a point that I knew that I had 05:10 to take Carlos out of the home. 05:12 And I went through a lot of guilt about that. 05:14 I felt like a failure and my wife struggled feeling 05:17 like a failure. And I knew. This was not a one day 05:20 experience of feeling failing. No. No, some 05:23 healing took place there absolutely. That's right. 05:25 And so I came through a point where we look 05:28 for a Christian school for troubled teenagers. 05:31 And Carlos went a little school called Miracle 05:34 Meadows down in West Virginia. 05:36 I've heard about that, yes I've heard of that. 05:37 Wonderful school Bill and Gayle Clark run it. 05:39 And Carlos was there about a year, 05:42 he burned down the barn while he was there, 05:45 he barely escaped with his own life, 05:46 he should have been dead, one of the kids 05:49 found him unconscious in there with the smoke 05:51 inhalation, but he didn't change and they basically 05:56 said well there's not a whole lot we can do to 05:58 help him. And he wanted to go and see his father. 06:01 He got it in his mind, if he go back to Guatemala 06:03 and find his birth father that his birth father 06:05 would really be able to help him. 06:08 So we helped him you know, I mean so many miracles 06:11 and God, you know in this process God found a 06:16 place, a Christian family to stay with in Guatemala. 06:20 And when he got there within two three days, 06:22 he wanted to come home. And we have told him 06:24 if you go you got to stay for six months, 06:27 because we knew he wanna come home right 06:29 away and when he got down there he met 06:30 his uncle. You know from his, 06:33 his biological family and his uncle told him 06:35 you better not go see your father because 06:36 he'll force you to stay down here and 06:39 he's in a bad way. Why? Why would he force to? 06:42 He is now; I mean that's the way they lived 06:44 down there. Use him. Oh yeah. I see. 06:47 And so Carlos decided not to see his birth father 06:50 but he stay down there for six months and 06:51 he came home. and he hasn't changed. 06:55 And so we put him in another Christian school 06:59 for troubled teenagers and he got kicked out 07:02 of that school. We put him in another Christian 07:04 school for troubled teenagers and he got 07:06 kicked out of that school. 07:08 So finally by this time he was 16 years of age. 07:11 Yeah. and we're still dealing with Rocky, 07:15 he's you know he is. Now Rocky was the other 07:17 one you adopted. Yeah, and he's still going through 07:20 all kinds of you know problems and all kinds 07:23 of stuff with his illness and also with the 07:25 bitterness. His illness was autism? Yeah. 07:29 They call it Aspergers today, it was like a high 07:30 functioning autism. So, you know here we are, 07:35 you know so many times in this process 07:37 we had to just constantly, it was like constantly 07:39 going to God and pouring out our heart and 07:41 saying God just create in us love and patience 07:45 and understanding, you just help us. 07:48 You know help us, we're helpless. 07:49 God just kept doing that, you know, 07:51 day by day, moment by moment. 07:52 You know he kept doing that for us. 07:55 And so I had a talk with my wife and I had 07:57 a talk with Carlos and I say Carlos we want 07:59 you know that we love you. And this is where 08:01 we're talking about understanding love. 08:03 Love has the side of mercy, but it also has the 08:06 side of justice. Yes. And so I say Carlos, 08:08 we love you, we want to help you and says 08:10 we're not trying to take the place of your 08:12 parents, we can't, you know we're just trying 08:13 to help you. But I said Carlos if you're not 08:16 willing to try and deal with this issues then 08:21 I'm gonna send you I'm gonna take you right 08:23 back down to Guatemala and I'm gonna leave 08:25 you there. And you know he heard me. 08:28 And this is by the time he was 16 but he had 08:30 already experienced being in Guatemala now 08:33 for six months, is that correct? Yeah but not as, 08:36 not on his own he knew he would come back 08:38 to you. That's right. But now he had been there 08:40 and experiencing what it was like to be there. 08:44 This was stark reality; oh he knew what it 08:45 was like there. I see. He knew what it was like. 08:47 And so he went to, we tried one more 08:50 school and these were some, this last one was 08:53 Teen Challenge, you know a wonderful school 08:55 for troubled teenagers. Yes. Well he was here 08:59 about a month or so, and he got in a fight 09:02 with somebody and ran away and called us 09:04 on the phone and I said Carlos if you show up 09:06 at home I said, I am gonna take you right down 09:08 the Guatemala. He said what I'm gonna do? 09:10 I says go back and deal with it. 09:13 Confront the situation. You got to quit running 09:15 away from yourself. See 'cause that's what 09:17 all of us tend to do as human beings we want 09:19 to blame somebody else, blame our parents 09:21 you know blame the society, 09:23 blame the church, blame everybody. 09:25 No accountability. Not be responsible. 09:27 That's right. Instead of dealing with the issue 09:28 in our own heart, so he said how am I gonna 09:31 get back. I said you know go and wash 09:33 some dishes you know get some bus fare, 09:35 'cause I grew up hard, yes. And you know love 09:38 has to be tough sometimes. Yes. 09:40 So he went back, he washed some dishes, 09:42 got some money, got back and within a month 09:45 or two he had given his heart to the Lord. Amen. 09:48 And he was born again. A genuine change came in 09:51 his life. Is that right. And he began to 09:52 communicate with us after that and he began 09:55 to thank us for showing him love. 09:57 That is truly born again, isn't it? That's right. 10:00 For all that we had done, you know we were away, 10:04 you know he continued to go to school, 10:06 he went to School in Texas while at Teen 10:08 Challenge and then he worked at Teen Challenge 10:09 for a couple of years. Did he? 10:11 And began to make a little progress, 10:13 little progress, little progress but he would 10:15 write us when we were away in Romania 10:19 for a year, doing evangelism, 10:20 but he'd write us letter and we write him 10:22 a letter and then when we're in the country 10:24 we talk on the phone about once every week. 10:28 And you know it was so precious just about 10:32 a month ago I said and he says daddy, 10:33 says I'm starting to learn that you know 10:37 it's my strong independent attitude 10:41 that is my biggest enemy. He is 21 years of age. 10:44 Oh is that right? And what a revelation, 10:49 most people who go to a church 30, 40 years 10:52 have not discovered that. That's right. 10:54 And you know to a human point of view 10:57 you know he doesn't attend church regularly, 11:00 but he's real with God. He is trying to learn 11:04 how to understand, how to walk with God 11:06 and how to live by faith and understand God's 11:09 character and he's 21 now, he just got married 11:12 about a year ago, a sweet young lady. 11:14 Is that right? And she is really precious and 11:16 they have a little girl Jasmine, 11:18 who was just born a little while ago, 11:20 probably about two months, 11:22 she must be about two months old now and 11:24 now he is beginning to understand more and 11:26 more about what God gave them, 11:29 him and his brother through us. 11:33 And through this experience it's helped me 11:35 to see the pain that I brought to my own parents 11:38 and the lack of appreciation that I 11:40 showed to my own mother especially. 11:42 'cause she went through hell with my father 11:43 and my father was just an animal. Really. 11:46 You know many times when I was going 11:47 to sleep the only thing I can hear was 11:50 my father cursing and swearing at my mother. 11:52 I didn't show appreciation of love to my 11:55 mother and it's like, it's been such a rich 11:58 experience even through all the pain 12:00 I wouldn't trade our boys, our family for all 12:03 the money in the world, it's been wonderful. 12:06 Now I share a little bit about, you know Rocky 12:08 and his experience. Yes, please do. 12:11 We home-schooled Rocky for probably three or 12:14 four years and then we began to see that, 12:17 you know he wasn't responding you know 12:21 normally and so we had some testing done 12:23 and began to see that you know he was, 12:25 had some special needs and so we tried him 12:28 in special aid, you know public school system. 12:32 And that wasn't really that helpful, 12:36 you know they just don't have enough 12:39 you know teacher and student ratio to try 12:42 and to work with him. I say not enough 12:43 individual time. You know so that was really 12:45 hard and it wasn't you know the special aid 12:48 class wasn't tailored to where you know Rocky 12:52 really is, you know it was just difficult so 12:55 we would, we took him back and we continued 12:57 to home-school. Did you, and you know with 12:59 Rocky it was like little by little we began to 13:04 have insights all along the way because 13:06 Rocky bonded with us. Carlos never did those 13:09 first years, but Rocky bonded with us emotionally 13:14 and even though he still was full of anger and 13:16 still did a lot of destructive and you know 13:19 bad things. It was little by little God began 13:23 to heal. And it's so complicated, 13:28 you know sometimes we're in situations in our 13:30 families that there are no, there's no answer. 13:33 Yes. You just have to make a judgment call 13:36 of some kind. Yeah, that's right. 13:38 You can talk to counselors till you're blue 13:39 in the face, there is no answers. 13:41 But the answer is letting God work in us, 13:44 letting God work through us and just depending 13:46 fully upon what God can do in someone's life. 13:49 And so Rocky would have one insight after 13:52 another, some it's like a light will come on 13:53 in his mind, you know about how to relate in 13:56 a situation but we still kept having problems like 13:59 he stole, he still steals on a continual bases. 14:04 And we began to realize it he is, it's 14:07 almost like he doesn't have a conscience. 14:09 You know it's like the part of the Aspergers 14:11 thing and you know we begin to alter the way 14:16 that we work with him. It makes me wonder 14:18 though, how many children are out there 14:20 that's like that, that hadn't been diagnosed 14:22 and it's certainly not working with parents, 14:25 who have found this about them. 14:27 There's probably thousands of them. 14:28 See if, in our Christian experience we're so 14:32 blind to where people are at. 14:36 It's so easy for us and that was me, 14:39 you know that was me just kind of looking 14:44 at someone and just kind of having an idea 14:46 of well this is what they should be like or they 14:49 should be able to understand this and 14:51 through our experience we've been able to 14:53 realize more and more that people are not able 14:58 to understand but little by little by little. 15:02 Little increments. That's right. You know I've just 15:04 got to interrupt you here. Yeah go. 15:06 We've had a little experience with 15:07 our daughter. There was a couple that 15:08 we've worked with and they've come out of 15:10 ten years and more, never confronting 15:14 a problem that they had to deal with. 15:16 They would run to drugs, or they would run away 15:19 and now they're married to each other, 15:21 you know of course one was on one setting 15:22 one another we met them when they got married 15:24 we have rented an apartment to them. 15:26 And our daughter has been dealing with this 15:28 very thing because they're in our home 15:30 a lot and we worked with them for two years 15:33 now they have a little six month old baby 15:35 and he's like a little grandson to us and 15:38 but just our daughter experiencing how to 15:43 deal and give them time. Not to make an excuse 15:47 for them to use her and saying well you 15:49 just got to give me time because they're 15:51 adults now. But realizing that this can be 15:55 a major problem, we don't know what all their 15:58 mind is able to comprehend. 16:01 And yet they shall magnificent understanding 16:03 at times, yeah. so anyway I, 16:06 you know I just rolled that through my mind 16:08 when you're talking about yours as our own 16:10 daughter has had experience dealing with 16:12 others and being long suffering. 16:15 And to me that's one of the greatest gifts 16:19 that God can give to us is to learn to have 16:23 forbearance, it's only through God's grace, 16:25 God working in us but to learn to give people 16:29 time to learn and even when 16:30 they're rebellious sure, there may need to be 16:33 some discipline. There may need to be some 16:36 separation there, but not to write people off. 16:39 And not to say well you know to the kind of, 16:42 look at them as hopeless or there's nothing 16:45 God can do for them because I've seen 16:46 with my own eyes. God changed so many 16:49 people starting with myself my heart 16:51 was so hard when I was a teenager, 16:53 I was just hard against God. Be it God find 16:56 a way to win my heart. God found the way 16:58 to soften my heart. It comes in the business 17:00 of saving us and we will be saved. Amen, 17:02 that's right. And he works ugly, 17:03 he works over years to set us up for surrender 17:08 of our hearts. Of course he does, 17:09 the Holy Spirit is working and I think of something 17:11 out of the favorite book called Steps to Christ. 17:13 And I told this to my girls many times, 17:15 maybe you told it to your boys, I don't know, 17:18 if you will not resist, amen, if you will not 17:20 resist you will be in heaven, you will be drawn, 17:23 amen, if you won't resist, amen. 17:27 And that's such a beautiful picture of what 17:29 God is really like, he wants us in heaven more 17:31 than we want to be there. Yes. We don't have 17:33 to worry about him keeping us out, 17:35 it's whether we are willing to be able to be 17:38 happy there, you know through his grace. 17:40 So you know, back doors where I'm talking about, 17:42 its okay. And we're working you know with Rocky 17:46 and little by little the lights come on and then 17:49 we had to go to Romania and he stayed with 17:53 my mom and my mom has such a positive 17:55 influence on him. You know she just loved him 18:00 and nurtured him and she, my mom, 18:04 I'll tell you what a gem, you know she's really 18:06 crippled up with arthritis, she can hardly, 18:09 she has little more of this now but at that time 18:10 she can hardly even walk and yet she would 18:13 help him, she get up in the morning and 18:15 help get ready him, get him ready for school 18:16 and she just loved him, you know all that time 18:20 and then he came back home and it's so, 18:25 it's been a process. but the light comes on 18:28 more and more he still has his liability, 18:31 revelations, oh I'm sorry I was thinking 18:32 the other way around but he is having his 18:34 revelations. Oh yeah, God he still teaching in. 18:35 but he still has his problems. And you know he 18:37 still has Aspergers, and his mind still functions 18:40 in that way. Yes. But it's like God is healing 18:43 him more and more spiritually. Just when 18:45 he was home recently he comes home on vacations 18:46 'cause now he is in a special school for children 18:50 just like himself and it's almost like, it's 18:52 not a Christian school but it's like a home 18:55 and they have four students. 18:57 So is he not in your home all the time? 19:00 No. In February of this year he went to this 19:02 special school and how old is he now. 19:04 He is 17. Is he? And when he comes home 19:07 of the school vacations, does he. And he was so, 19:10 it was so awesome, recently we had a little 19:14 crisis I think there was some thunder 19:15 lightening and our dog took off or something. 19:17 And first thing out of Rocky's mouth he says, 19:20 he says I want to pray to Jesus, so that Jesus 19:22 can help bring our dog home and he would just 19:27 be bow his head and he just talk to Jesus 19:30 the best way he knows Jesus. Amen. 19:32 And then when the dog came back he say 19:36 you know look at, you know Jesus brought 19:37 our dog back. And to look at that boy, 19:41 11 years ago there is no way in the world 19:46 that he could ever, ever get any better only worse. 19:50 But it's not me, it's not my wife, it's through 19:54 the grace of Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 19:56 The divine healing love of Jesus Christ that 19:59 he's doing that work, and I believe with all 20:00 my heart that Rocky is going to be in heaven. 20:03 Amen. Because he is so, I mean it's just 20:06 beautiful to see the Holy Spirit working him 20:08 in his fear, in his fear, yes. 20:12 And see that's what God's trying, 20:13 one of the things God is trying to help us 20:15 learn as we work with each other everybody 20:17 is at a different level, of different fear, 20:19 different understanding, we gotta quit 20:20 pigeonholing people and writing people off 20:23 and you know trying to, you know put him 20:26 in the way we see it, but see people through 20:30 God's eyes. Now, is Rocky at an mental, 20:34 average mental level of a 17 year old. No, no. 20:38 it sounded from the prayer that he might not be. 20:40 No, no he's probably like a 3 or 4 year old. 20:42 Is that right? I wonder what he was then 20:45 when you got him. Not very much. 20:50 Not very much, he was 6 years old, 20:51 he couldn't dress himself, he couldn't hold 20:54 a pencil in his hand. Just it was like he was 20:57 just vicious like animal, like a vicious animal. 21:01 And I mean he loves to work now, 21:03 we taught him, we taught our children 21:05 responsibility. He loves to work. 21:08 And he's a good worker. He will go out and 21:11 he will you know he takes a long time because 21:13 he's got to it in his autistic way. Yes. 21:15 When he stacks firewood, very methodically. 21:17 Yeah and he has to have this piece here and 21:20 that piece there and so. Really. 21:21 And it takes him longer, like a puzzle. 21:22 That's right like a puzzle, you got it. 21:24 Like a puzzle. And he has to do it his way but 21:27 he loves to work. You know he loves to do 21:30 things I mean that's just so incredible what God 21:32 has done in his life. And so it's that process 21:36 and I believe that if my wife and I hadn't of, 21:45 believed in what God could do, and hadn't been 21:47 willing, didn't hang in there, hang in there, 21:49 yeah, I still believe that God would help our boys. 21:52 But we would not have had the blessing of 21:55 God in our own lives. You see in our, 21:57 and it wasn't easy. It wasn't through ease 22:00 and avoiding, wasn't through any kind 22:03 of escaping like that. No, it was, 22:07 I mean it was just I can't describe in words the pain, 22:10 putting one foot in front of the other. 22:12 It was one day, sometimes many times one 22:14 moment at a time, one minute at a time crying 22:17 out to the Lord, do the next thing. 22:19 That's right. But it was our blessing to have 22:25 these boys. You know. Is it easier to see 22:27 that as a blessing now or did you see, 22:30 did you really feel it as a blessing in the 22:33 earlier years. I felt that it was harder for my wife 22:37 I think. She's probably more sensitive, 22:43 as a person everybody has different 22:44 personality temperaments. Yes. 22:47 But after those first two weeks in my experience 22:51 I saw it clearly it didn't feel good a lot of the time, 22:54 but I saw it was clear, I had a clear vision 22:56 in my heart, God had given us this gift of having 23:00 these boys to change our characters. 23:02 The gift of suffering. That's right, amen. 23:05 And in Philippians 3:10 one of the things 23:08 Paul says that, he says, That I may know him 23:10 and the Power of His Resurrection and the 23:12 fellowship of his sufferings. Amen. Oh. 23:14 And it's through going experiencing the rejection 23:19 and pain in own lives that we have a little 23:21 window into the suffering of God. 23:23 Just a little window and the more suffering 23:25 we're willing to experience the more we can 23:28 sympathize with our God and the more we 23:30 see what love really is. Amen. 23:32 And it's a fearful prayer, don't pray that. Scary. 23:36 You know Dietrich Bonhoeffer I think prayed 23:39 about the cost of discipleship, amen. 23:42 And his book I don't know if you read it I 23:43 wanna get it, I haven't read it, 23:44 I've seen it and I would like to read it, 23:47 listen I want to invite our viewers you have 23:49 a little story about your daughter Hannah, 23:51 but I wanna invite our audience to write or 23:54 call 3ABN and if there's any future topic 24:00 that we can handle on Thinking about Home, if 24:02 it's possible for us to that then we'll try to, 24:05 we'll consider what you have to suggest. 24:08 The address is 3ABN, P.O. Box 220, 24:12 West Frankfort, Illinois 62896 and I wanna 24:16 give you the 800 number, it's 1-800-752-3226 24:21 and I just want to encourage you to write 24:23 or call and back to you now. 24:26 Hannah is your daughter, we've only got 24:27 a few minutes we wanna share a scripture 24:29 and then we'll go out with prayer but, 24:31 what about Hannah? This has been a hard, 24:33 hard experience for Hannah because she has had 24:36 to live with a lot of pain and rejection. 24:40 And yet you know God is, have been working 24:43 with her through this experience. 24:45 You know she's struggled, as she is getting older, 24:49 it's been especially hard with Rocky because 24:52 he doesn't think like we think. Hannah would 24:54 try to just do things with him and he would 24:57 just react in way that is totally unnatural. 25:02 You know just because he's on different 25:05 wavelength you know and you know she got 25:07 to a point where she just said you know 25:10 I don't want to be round him anymore 25:12 and you know I felt like that so many times, 25:15 yes. It doesn't mean that. Were there many 25:17 nights sitting down and talking and crying, 25:20 yeah you better believe it. Maybe days do. 25:21 You better believe it. And yet even though 25:25 she said that at times her heart wouldn't let go, 25:28 really. She didn't really want. 25:29 No, 'cause she's continuing, she works, 25:34 I mean you know doing small jobs, 25:36 she cleans my mother's little apartment 25:38 and then she has a small allowance and 25:42 she spends lot of her money on gifts and 25:45 she will buy, that's her love language, 25:46 yeah that's right, it is. It's her love language. 25:49 I've a daughter like that. and she sends gift to 25:51 Carlos for the little baby or him or to Rocky and, 25:57 I mean it just amazes me you know how 25:58 she's been willing to embrace these boys 26:02 and to work with them. I just thank God for 26:05 my daughter you know it's been really hard 26:08 and she's had a rough inheritance, 26:10 I think a lot of times we don't understand 26:13 the inheritance that children receive hinders 26:17 them to some extent in their response to 26:20 the love of God. And my inheritance 26:21 I passed on to her is, not an easy one, 26:24 not an easy one. We need to remember 26:26 we have be gifted to our children it keeps 26:28 us humble. That's right, that's right it sure does. 26:30 Now in the other hand we can't forget the 26:31 justice, didn't you have a scripture that 26:33 you wanted to share with us? Yeah. 26:34 you know in Philippians 1 and verse 6 it's been 26:38 a very favorite scripture, one of the first ones 26:39 I memorized as a new Christian, that God given 26:43 us the joy in our life to know that he is gonna 26:46 finish the work that he began in our life. 26:49 And that's God wants us to be in it for 26:51 the long halt. Yes. Not on again off again, 26:54 but for the long halt, oh amen. 26:55 And it says being confident of this very thing 26:59 that he which has begun a good work in you 27:02 will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 27:06 And I just wanna make that appeal to those 27:08 who are out there, and families that are less 27:11 than perfect that there are troubles 27:13 and difficulties, God is able to help you to 27:18 experience his love, don't run away, 27:22 don't blame but just go forward in faith. Amen. 27:25 And I want to invite you to join us again 27:29 on Thinking about Home, we're going to have 27:31 prayer now for those families who may 27:34 have experienced something like this. 27:35 Rick, would you pray for us. Yes. 27:37 Father in heaven, again it's been a great joy 27:40 to be able to speak of you and what 27:44 a wonderful God you are. Our minds are so weak 27:48 and feeble to grasp how deep and how great 27:55 your love is. You've given us many 27:57 metaphors in the Bible to explain that. |
Revised 2014-12-17