Just Be Patient

Be Patient.  We hear it, we say it.  We tell it to others, we even tell it to ourselves.  

Be patient.  But what does that mean?  How do we do it?  And how do we know we’ve been patient long enough?

Like many of you, I was asking my family to practice patience this week while we were cooking Thanksgiving day.  My goodness, they were so ready to eat and we weren’t quite finished cooking yet!  But here they would come, their pitiful little faces, asking if it was ready.  And when I kept telling them, “No, not yet,” then they started snooping around, looking for anything that was cooked.  Then they started asking if they could just have a snack!  A snack? After all this, no way! You think I’m going to let days and weeks of planning go down the drain so you can have a few chicken nuggets or a corn dog? I don’t think so!

I love my family, and I had worked really hard to make their day as special and delicious as I possibly could.  I just needed them to trust me and to show a little patience.  I mean, if I had given in to their begging and pleading right at that moment, all I could have given them would have been a half-baked bird or a cold ham! It doesn’t matter if I had been cooking a frozen pizza or a corn casserole, I am just not in the business of giving my family cold, runny, raw, half-cooked food!

That really got me thinking about patience.  It got me thinking about times I have needed to show patience.  Times maybe I have been the one begging and pleading when really I needed to be trusting. Times maybe God was listening to me and He was saying, “No, not yet.” Times maybe He had been preparing something for me and there I was looking pitiful and asking when will He be ready.

I mean think about it…really think about it. All of the preparing for a big day like Thanksgiving or a birthday or some other special occasion.  All of the planning and prepping that goes into getting ready.  I know we started talking about when and where and what months ago.  We talked about the menu, I made a list, I shopped, and I stored. Then there was the cooking. We cut and covered, sliced and diced, mixed and mashed, sautéed and simmered.  For hours and hours it was all in the works.

But then here comes the hard part.  The waiting.  I mean, we were in there just cooking up a storm, and here come the little kids…"I’m so hungry!”  And then here come some big kids…"How much longer?”  Then here come the grown ups…."When will it be ready?”

They knew it was coming, they knew what we were up to, but their tummies were rumbling, and it sure was smelling good (you should smell that cornbread dressing!).  They knew we would turn it all over as soon as it is all ready, but still they were wandering around, asking and asking, looking for a bite.

But I knew they would have to wait.  I knew that if they were to have the absolute best I had to give, they would have to wait.  If they wanted the fullness of all I had planned, they would have to be patient.

Isn’t this so similar to the plans God has for our lives?  

I mean think about it…really think about it.  All of the planning and prepping that goes into such a masterful plan from such a loving God.  I mean, if God were to give in to our begging and pleading right at that very moment we ask or we think we are really ready, we would be left with a half-baked miracle!  I don’t think it matters if it is something big or small, I just don’t think He is in the business of giving us something unprepared or underdone!

I know there are times I am just-a-praying.  Times I know He is on my side and He has it all in the works. Times I know He has big plans for my life, but times I still ask, and still beg, and still plead for Him to come through for me at that very moment.  Times I should probably picture Him looking at me the way I look at my own children saying, “No, not yet.” Times I know He must be thinking, “Give in now? No way!”  Times I am about to let it all go down the drain over a few chicken nuggets or a corn dog! He must be like, “I don’t think so!”

The truth is, I believe it is in those moments that we must show patience. It is in those moments we should trust that He has been planning and prepping much the same way we do for those we love. It is in those moments we should show patience knowing it is better for us to wait for the absolute best He has planned for us rather than taking a plan that is still cold.

The truth is, I know this is difficult.  I mean trust me, I know how hard it is to wait. But the truth is, I think that is the definition of patience.  I think it is waiting and also trusting.  Waiting and also knowing.  Waiting, even when everything within you says, “But when????”

As I turned away each hungry little (and big) person that came my way, I did so out of every ounce of love I have in my heart.  I did so so that they would have the very best I had to offer. 

I will continue to pray and to trust and to know that I serve a God that surely loves me at least that much that He to wants to give me the very best He has to offer.  And I will wait patiently.