Patience

Emma helped me plant seeds for the garden on Saturday afternoon.

We put the soil in, then the seeds, then we watered them. I told her, "Now we will wait and soon they will grow!" Having a child in the home does wonders. Five minutes later she went back out to the kitchen where the tray of newly planted seeds were and announced, "They aren't up yet, Poppa!" I explained they take time. So she waited through about half an hour of watching March of the Wooden Soldiers, then ran out to the kitchen to repeat the same announcement.

Finally I explained, "It will be a longer time until we see the plants pop up, but they will come."

We are told in God's Word, "Let us not become weary in doing good for we will reap a harvest in due season if we do not give up." Waiting for answers to prayer is not easy. Looking for results of our labor can take time. Planting seeds, watering them are our job. It is God who causes them to grow and His ways are not our ways and His timing is not ours. He makes all things beautiful in His time- not ours. These are lessons that take a lifetime to fully learn. Like the person who prayed, "LORD, I need patience, but I want them now!" we often are like my sweet granddaughter Emma who turns three today. We expect things to happen quickly and then face frustration and disappointment when they don't.

I have to confess I am more like her in this way than I care to admit. I am looking for the seed to pop up when I should rest and leave it in the LORD's Hand. Oh what needless pain we bear!

I read this by Oswald Chambers this morning:
Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means "I must have it at once." Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today "the third day" and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.

We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.

I watered the plants this morning, I even move the tray daily into direct sunlight in the day hours... it won't be long now. Emma and I will be rejoicing over the new plants that will be moved out into the backyard in a few months. Thanks LORD for making the seeds grow. Forgive us when we do not look to You!