TIME

    Not long ago, I was looking through my journal and a thought that had occurred to me in January came back so clear.  I am not an every day journaler, but it is so good for me to write down thoughts and prayers whenever I get a chance.... mostly because of the blessing that I get later from being able to come back and see what all God has done since then, and see what amazing answers He has given in the meanwhile.

    Anyway, as I had recorded before in this post, God answered my pleadings for His intervention when I was having such a hard time with Jonathan.  It really was very clearly an answer to prayer, and Jonathan STILL has not had another tantrum since that awful last day....  Praise God for that one!!  (Do you hear my relief and gratitude?!?) 

   In the next couple of months that followed, there wasn't really another situation in which we saw night-and-day difference in his behavior.  We just sort of settled into better patterns gradually.  He slowly started to give in to things that were not his choice without too much of a fight.  Apparently, it really started to "click" that the consequences for certain behaviors were NOT going to go away, and he began to yield little by little  in different areas.

   Since there was no absolutely obvious moving of the Hand of God, I subtly started thinking that it was just TIME itself that was making the changes.   -- You know the saying:   "Time heals all wounds." 

   Well, I realized one day in January that quite honestly --

 that just isn't true!

   Rather than try to think up different words to express what I was thinking back in January, I'll just quote my thoughts that I wrote out as a prayer in my journal:

"As time has gone by with Jonathan here, my enemy and the subtleness of the world tempts me to think that it is just TIME itself that is making the changes.  I should know better.

Yes, Jonathan is maturing.

  He is responding to discipline. 

 He is learning self-control and how to handle his anger. 

 But, it's not happening by chance. 

 It's not just that time heals all wounds.  

 Time does not heal ALL wounds. 

 Lots of wounds fester;  lots of broken hearts become bitter;

lots of people never learn self-control. 

 Lord God,   IT IS YOU.  

You  are doing this work. 

It is not coincidence. 

 It's not that it just would have worked itself all out in the long run

 no matter what. 

It's not that Dan and I are such great parents

 or that we just have such selfless love for orphans. 

 No, No, NO. 

 Let glory be given where glory is due. 

It is you and you alone. 

 You are  using time in which to do it,

 but it is Your  hand moving the hearts and the hands of time."