By Amy at Make Me a Mary She had a little scratch on her hand, and she came in to show me and wanted me to look
right now. But I was in a rush trying to put on mascara.
You know how it is. Once you take the brush out of the bottle you only have so much time before the air dries it out too much. So I had my face all up in the mirror doing my lashes in deep concentration, but she pressed and her urgency made me go ahead and look. And when I did, I saw an "injury" so microscopic I could barely see it without glasses.
I sighed, irritated at her impatience. And as I went back to my now-clumpy lashes and my gunked-up brush, I realized that
I'm just as impatient as she is. Probably more so.
For me, waiting for something is like having my hands tied together. Depending on how long I have to wait, the rope can seem quite knotted up. And the undoing of those knots is out of my control, hence my many impatience-induced freak-outs (or at the very least, sighs of irritation).
Oftentimes the circumstance will eventually unknot itself, but with the bigger, more complicated knots in life, I need the Lord to undo them for me. It's never fun to wait, and most of the time it frustrates me that He won't just cut those knots loose and let me continue on my way with my hands free. Instead He chooses to pick them out slowly, like a mama picking knots out of her little child's shoes.
I know He has His reasons for doing things the longer way. And maybe one of His reasons is as simple as growing my patience. Maybe He's teaching me to just pause and breathe in Jesus so I won't huff out irritation. After all, how important is mascara, really?
But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth. Psalm 86:15
{This post is part of the 31 Days series running through the month of October 2011. If you want to jump in, you can link up here.}
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Comments (3)
haha me me
My roommate and I were just talking about this last night! She is older (and wiser) than I am and was giving me advice on dealing with the upcoming life decisions I must make. We came to the conclusion together that having to do things 'our' way just makes things more difficult 'cause God always has our best interest in mind- He ALWAYS has a better way! Impatience, I've been noticing, is one of the biggest roadblocks for my contentment. I know what I want and I want it now instead of knowing what God wants and waiting for Him to reveal the rest in His timing.
Take the time to understand others' feelings. I'm now nearly 60 years old, and looking back, I wasted a lot of time hurrying to get jobs done, not always comprehending what others many be feeling, especially my own children.