When it gets to that time of day…lunch time…my son seems to have an inbuilt mechanism in his brain (or his stomach) and he often asks, “Is it lunch time yet, Mummy?” We have lunch around 12:30pm, so I would then tell him how long he needs to wait. It’s usually not that long, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, but with my son being only 4 years old he has no concept of time. From that first time he asks me, until we sit down to lunch, he must ask me at least a dozen times before I serve it. My reply to him would usually be, “Just be patient!”
My eldest daughter, however, has a better idea and will work out that she would need to count to 60 for one minute to pass by…she might count it a little bit faster though than what seconds should really be counted for. She will then realise that she would need to do the cycle 20 times for 20 minutes to pass by. “But Mummy, that is far too many times to count to the number 60. That would take me aaaaages!” She would start, but then after a few rounds she soon gives up.
A virtue is a positive trait or a quality deemed to be morally good. This is why we hear the saying ‘patience is a virtue’. If we learn the art of waiting, we also learn how to be more disciplined and obedient. Well, that’s what I have read…it is so hard to be patient sometimes and I have certainly not mastered it!
My life at the moment has been all about being patient. It’s taken me three months to get to the point of making my blog live with my first post. My husband thinks that I am really patient. I guess I am when it comes to the obvious things like having patience with my children (most of the time), but when it comes to wanting to know what to do with my life and where its going, I want to know right now what is happening. I guess it’s probably because it’s to do with the unknown. I don’t know where my life is going to at the moment. All I know is that I have a passion and I want to do something about it.
I am currently reading a book at the moment by Sue Monk Kidd, “When the Heart Waits”. I bought this before I went on holiday at the beginning of February, and guess what? Yep, I am STILL reading it! It’s worse than that though… I am only up to chapter 3!! I like reading, but first of all I need to find the time to read. Secondly, I need to find the patience. Sitting down to read a book is the last thing on my mind when I have three children, work full time and do the usual home stuff.
She writes some insightful stuff though about learning the discipline of “active waiting” in a time where life seemed to have lost its meaning for her. She mentions about some daffodil bulbs that she had planted, but had planted them too deep. (That’s the kind of thing that I would do!). She compared though the bulb that was planted deep into the ground with that of her own life. The shoots of the daffodils breaking through the deep soil to form a beautiful plant. Was there something deep down within her own life that was wanting to break free? Something that would turn out to be so beautiful? Only time and patience would tell.
I guess this is what it is like with my own life at the moment. All I know is that I have something deep down within me that is bursting to reach the top and break through. I just need to be patient and spend time with God in prayer to cultivate whatever is growing. Hopefully, over the next few months we will see some fruition.
Let me know if there is something in your life that you feel you are waiting for? Do you know what you are waiting for? How long have you been waiting? Are you a patient person?
