Bless you, ohiowfan.
When I was writing my earlier reply, patience in waiting for the justice of God was foremost on my mind but I felt to hold back on addressing it fully. The roads we travel through life often determine where we stand on this virtue. God has worked a deep patience in me in every area of my life because He has made me wait for ... everything! Health, peace, truth, vindication, acceptance, freedom from oppression, understanding ... He's made me wait. (Still am waiting for some of those things.) And through it all, I've learned that my little clock and calendar don't mean much, and I'll never have peace till I lay them down. I love the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo in Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, where the old, wise Gandalf is trying to get Frodo to see that it isn't his to dole out judgment and death, that there are some who live who deserve to die, and many who die who deserve to live ... driving the conversation around to how he perceived that Gollum, whom Frodo wished had been killed by Bilbo, yet had a part to play in the great war of the Ring. Somehow, somehow, bill clinton, the boy president, still has a part to play in this whole drama, of that I am sure. In the end, for all of us, it comes down to trusting to the mercy of God, who loves bill clinton so much He is willing to be patient with him, giving opportunity after opportunity to repent fully, rather than see him in hell forever. And there is this other consolation to those of us who grieve over what God has allowed clinton to do to ravage America: God is in control, the government is on His shoulders, and the clintons are on a leash. I don't like how long it extends, but I know who holds the other end. They will be allowed to do nothing without God okaying it, and I know we can stop much of their evil through our prayers. So how's that for a good reason to forgive and pray! (It helps me; I just preached to myself while typing that!)
Good reason, Gretchen!
I know with certainty that God is in control, and my opinion as to why He allowed us to be subjected to the evil of Bill and Hillary Clinton is that we were heading rapidly in that direction as a nation. They were what we asked for, and deserved.
That is why I still believe without a question that George and Laura Bush were given to us because of God's mercy and grace, and because of the prayers of the faithful, and that we must not fail to pray for them without ceasing.
I'll work on the prayers for the xlintons, Gretchen! As much as I know that they are loved by God, I still find it difficult to do anything except pray for their destruction.