Wait on the Lord: Charlotte Akin
I love summertime! I have since I was a little girl. I love anything to do with water. I love swimming and the beach is one of my favorite places to be. I love the wonderful summertime foods that you get to enjoy. It doesn’t get much better than delicious corn on the cob covered with butter and salt, fried green tomatoes, and of course yummy Blue Bell cookies n’ crème ice cream.
I was raised in a children’s home in Georgia after my parents divorced. I lived in the children’s home from age 9 to 18. I was saved when I was 11. One of the best things about my salvation was knowing that I have a heavenly daddy that would never leave me. This security in the Lord helped to grow me into the woman that I am today, knowing that I am nothing without the Lord and that he is the center of my life keeps my faith and my hope centered in Him. When I was 16 I met the man of my dreams. I worked a summer job with a lady named Linda McSwain. During my first week of work his Aunt Linda took a Polaroid picture of me and gave it to her nephew Danny Akin and said, “You need to date this beautiful orphan girl”. Aunt Linda got me out of the children’s home for the weekend and that Friday afternoon I met that cute Danny Akin. This was 4th of July weekend, the summer of 1975. The next day we went swimming and Danny invited me to go to dinner and a movie. He took me to see the wonderful, romantic movie… Jaws! We dated for three years and during this time Danny was called into ministry so we got married and moved to Dallas, TX right after. I was 19 and Danny was 21 when we married, and the Lord has blessed us with many wonderful ministry opportunities over the 40 years we have been together.
I am forever grateful to the Lord for sending Danny and me to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. We are so grateful that Southeastern is like a big family to us. The Lord has also gifted us with a large immediate family. We have four sons, three of them are married to beautiful and godly ladies and then this fall our fourth son will be married, giving us another beautiful and godly daughter-in-law. We have twelve grandkids—six boys and six girls. The Lord has blessed us greatly and we are thankful for his gifts.
Another great thing about summertime is getting to slow down and enjoy a slower paced life. In the summertime I get to spend more time in God’s word and prayer. Because of this slower, relaxed pace my focus is more on the Lord. I get worn out sometimes during our semesters. My days turn into marathons just from moving from one thing to another which can be exhausting. My focus is taken off who I am in Christ and crowded with the busyness of life. I love this verse in Isaiah,
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not grow weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31
This verse reminds me that without the greatness of God I am weak and weary. But if I wait on the Lord he changes my weakness into His strength and I am renewed so I can run and not grow wear. It is my prayer for you that your strength will be renewed in the Lord and that you will not grow weary in what the Lord will set before you this semester. Ladies, as our summer is coming to an end, I want to welcome our new ladies as well as those returning to what I hope will be a great new semester and a wonderful fall! One of the great things about being the President’s wife is that I get to know so many of you wonderful ladies. It is my hope that the Lord will cause our paths to cross. If you see me in chapel or on campus, please come say hey!
Mrs. Charlotte and her family