The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.(Lamentations 3:25)
I’m not a very patient person.
There, I’ve said it. I hate to wait for something–especially if it’s important to me.
This isn’t something I’ve just discovered, but it became much more of an issue when our son enlisted in the Marine Corps. I soon learned that everything about serving in the military involved waiting. And truthfully, all that practice didn’t thrill me. I hadn’t planned on getting better at this task.
The world where we live wasn’t helping. Society tries to tell us that we don’t need patience. Everywhere we turn we’re promised instant answers, instant success, instant happiness. If we listen to the world, fulfillment comes more from a single, instant choice, than anything else.
Unfortunately, with all these instant answers, come fleeting results. As quickly as something comes, it goes. Happiness is momentary, security doesn’t last, and fame is only available in 15-minute increments.
God on the other hand, promises us something different.
He promises us good things when we wait. He understands that lasting results take longer than an instant. He also knows that as we grow and mature, our wants and needs will also grow and mature.
When our son first enlisted, my goal was to be the best military man’s mom there ever was. I would support him in ways that would go down in history.
But through the process of our son’s service, I discovered that the strongest skill I’d develop was the ability to wait. I waited on phone calls, letters and email. I waited for news of training, separations and deployments. And most of all, I was waiting to hold him again in my arms, safe after he returned from the Middle East.
But God had other goals for me during our son’s time in the military. He used that time of waiting to refine me and grow me into someone who knew how to wait. We think of waiting as this thing we must to do to reach our goals and dreams. Truthfully they’re being accomplished AS WE WAIT.
Waiting isn’t a static barrier we must burst through to reach our dreams and goals–it’s the vehicle we board to make the trip.
Today I challenge you to look at waiting as an active process. Ask for new eyes to see what’s really happening around and through you. Then rejoice in the journey, as God uses waiting to bring your dreams to fruition.
