Pastor Tom Elif says you can learn a lot about discipline by observing a gardener.

You see, I can take a pine tree and I can make it look like a willow tree by taking strings and staking those branches down in the ground.

And pretty soon I've got them all bent down. It looks like a willow tree.

But you know what? That's not its nature. It's working against those strings constantly. And so if that was a child, the parent would say, why are they always resisting everything? Always, always, always resisting everything. Because this child has a unique nature. I need to get to know this boy. By the way, when I got to know my son, I realized he's not me. He's a thousand times

better than I ever thought about being.

This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Lee DeMoss for Tuesday, July 21st.

I love putting pictures of my friends' families on my refrigerator.

Have lots of them that have been up there over the years.

And one of the ones I enjoy getting every year is a picture of Tom and Jeannie Elif's Klan. And that's what it is. It grows.

It seems every year. It's like a camp picture. Like a camp picture. You've got the families with different color-coated outfits on and, you know, the picture just gets bigger or the figures in it gets

smaller as your family is growing.

But Tom and Jeannie Eliff, welcome to revive our hearts. And we want to talk about what's behind

that picture that God has blessed you with. Tom has pastor for many years and is now involved

with ministry with Jeannie to the missionaries of the International Mission Board.

And both of you love the Lord, love His Word, love serving, love each other, you love people.

But I think one of the most remarkable things about your lives by God's grace is the family he has blessed you with.

And I've had the privilege over the years of knowing your four children,

and now all of them married to godly mates and 22 grandchildren.

Correct.

But I look at that picture of your family, those generations.

And I think, and I've often said, this is a national treasure,

a family like this that loves each other, loves the Lord, has stuck together. And it's not

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