Editor’s Note: The Power of Moms is a website for mothers of all religions (and for mothers who are not necessarily religious). Each Sunday, we post a spiritual essay, and we would love to gather a wide variety of perspectives and ideas. Our goal is to be respectful of all beliefs while simultaneously offering opportunities to share meaningful, spiritual thoughts with one another.
I don’t like to wait. Who does? I had to tell the boys “WAIT” several times the other morning. They wanted to play with something and needed help with several parts. I was trying to get the house clean for some reason that I only remember felt urgent. “Wait” seemed impossible for them to bear. They began complaining. “Just a minute”-and really it was just under ten minutes- nothing too long in MY time frame. The work I was doing was for the “greater good” and we could all play when it was done.
That morning as I attempted to drown out the complaints with the vacuum, a memory of impatience came to me. I remembered my feelings at having to wait at the hospital for our baby, who had been sick, to get discharged. I had felt lots of the grumpy kind of impatience during the last few hours at the hospital. I wanted so badly to get out of there. I hadn’t showered or slept in days. I was anxious to pick up my other two children who had been watched at various friend’s homes. We had to wait for the discharge, and there wasn’t anything we could do to get out more quickly (Believe me, I tried!).
But on the Lord’s clock, those few hours were not very long. He had just finished working us a miracle- we were on our way home with a healthy baby. Perhaps there were a few other miracles being worked on during the hours we had to wait. The morning I was cleaning, my boys were learning that things don’t always (or even usually) happen on our time table. God is working for the “greater good”- on things we’ll never know about. The choice we have is to endure the wait with faith and cheefulness, or selfishness and impatience. I know how I would have liked my children to wait for me to get to them, and I imagine the Lord would also be pleased with His children happily waiting for Him.
Once I realized I was stuck at the hospital I tried to busy myself with doing things for others- thanking nurses, reading to a little girl who wasn’t going home anytime soon, cleaning out our room for the next patient. I was a lot happier once I stopped dwelling on myself and did what I could do during the wait.
That was a lesson worth waiting for.
QUESTION: Is there something in your life that is requiring you to “wait” right now?
CHALLENGE: Try to step back and take a look at the bigger picture.
Image by lanier67/flickr.com
Submitted on 9-4-2007 at 06:44am
Thanks so much for sharing your story. My husband is away for 5 months, and I am struggling being patient and knowing what to do with my time with my two little girls, as well as being patient to find out where we will be moving to. It is true that things hardly ever occur on our time frame (we want things to happen NOW), but we need to put our trust in the Lord and let things happen according to his timetable.
Submitted on 8-31-2007 at 04:03pm
What a beautiful article! I am in the process of “waiting” for my baby to be born, and I realized that I need to be grateful for this process instead of selfish and whiney. Also, I started to think about why children do not want to wait for things: usually they do not understand the importance of what is causing them to wait, they do not know how to use their time while they wait, and they think that the person making them wait does not understand how badly they want the end product/experience/etc. These are definitely things I can work on. Thanks for helping to make my waiting period easier!
Waiting, there is so much waiting in life! Right now we are waiting for a property to sell, and for answers on the next stage of our lives. You offer great advice, though, to focus on others. Not only are we able to help someone else, but we become less focused on our own issues.
I needed to read this today. I too am waiting for the birth of my fourth child, and I am not enjoying the wait! I really appreciated your thoughts that maybe this wait is for the Lord to perform a few more miracles on our behalf. Thank you!