The wedding photo and 25th wedding anniversary photo above show my amazing grandparents Grandfather and Grandmother Goble.
I consider it a very big blessing in my life that my cousin (who I have never met personally) recently sent me many pictures of my dad’s family. Previous to this I had seen very few photos of this amazing family of twelve children—my dad being the youngest. I have always been fascinated by the fact that my Grandfather was born in 1849 and he married my grandmother when she was 16 in 1873. Looking at these beautiful photos we might imagine a blissful simple life. But, it doesn’t take much considering of their lives before you can put together that they had a tough existence. Although their set of difficulties may have been somewhat different from ours, actually all through the ages people have faced very similar afflictions—and the real answer to dealing with those hardships continues to be the same as it has been from the beginning of time.
Only by keeping our eyes on God through reading His word and prayer can we have any hope for help and direction when we are going through times of trouble. He has a huge master plan that He is working out through all the ups and downs of our lives. Today I was in a conference with Steve Lawson and he told us that thinking of the Lord 10 times as much as we think about ourselves needs to be our plan. If we think about ourselves 10 times as much as we think about the Lord, then we will certainly sink under the burden we are experiencing.
This Thursday morning we will be discussing this very point as we study Psalms 102 and 94. This information is life giving! Don’t miss it. I’ll also be sharing a bit about our trip to Chile and the ministry opportunities the Lord opened for us.