Gracious Waiting

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Impatient dominates. I get so frustrated as I wait for my children to do something I have asked them to. I ask them again and again and yet they need more time than I have allotted and need more time than I expect. Possessing a pretty strong internal time clock I have expectations of how long something should take. Wait a minute … these expectations are of how long it takes ME. Shoot … I have got to slow. it. down. They need a break, they need for me to have real expectations and they need me to graciously wait.
  
    My children, and others, need me to graciously wait. To wait as they climb into the car, as they brush their teeth, as they eat, as they speak, as they pull out of a parking space, as they walk, as they learn and as they grow.

    I have grown accustomed to quick service and immediate results to my requests and sometimes I am just mean. Yet God calls me to slow down, to wait, to watch and maybe even enjoy another’s pace. I miss out on so much as my unrealistic expectations lead and I withhold grace.

    How will you offer someone grace today? How will you go at their pace rather than your own? 

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Choosing Patience

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

“But true patience is the opposite of a passive waiting in which we let things happen and allow others to make decisions. Patience means to enter actively into the thick of life and to fully bear the suffering within and around us … It is to enter our live with open eyes, ears, and hands so that we really know what is happening. Patience is an extremely difficult discipline precisely because it counteracts our unreflective impulse to flee or to fight.”
                                Compassion by Nouwen, McNeill and Morrison

    Through this rich perspective on patience I am challenged. Patience is not just getting through something; it is choosing to actively engage life. It is not just surviving; it is choosing to live in reality.

    Patience is a choice that goes against what is natural within us. Naturally we want to scream, to yell, to control, to assert physical power. Naturally we want to ignore, pretend, just get through the day. Patience requires trust. Patience requires discomfort. Patience requires supernatural help because in and of myself I do not trust and I want to be comfortable.

    Patience requires help from the God of greatest patience and the God who choose to enter actively into the thick of life and fully bear the suffering within and around us. Patience requires Jesus and our great Helper – the Holy Spirit.

    How will you choose to enter into live fully, trusting and depending on our God who entered fully into our lives?

 
**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

God Waits

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    God waits. God is so patient as He waits for us to learn, grow and “get it”. He waits as I learn (again) to speak kind words. He waits as I learn (again) to trust Him alone. He waits as I learn (again) that I desperately need Him to do what He has called me to. He waits.

    God has the perfect pace and timing yet He is so patient with me. My impatience sits in stark contrast to His as I demand of myself more than He does, as I demand more of others than He does … and I demand it now.

    God waits as you learn and grow. He pushes, challenges and encourages while waiting patiently and lovingly, knowing we need time.

    He gives you time, will you give yourself time?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Head and Hands

**Sit quietly in silence, eyes closed for one minute before reading.**

    2012 was brutal. I’ll spare you the details but it was a year of pain, tears, wrestling and sadness. It was a year of many questions, wondering where I belonged and struggling to trust and hope. It was a year in which God was repeating:

“Just because you have it in your head does not mean it happens through your hands.”
“Just because you have it in your head does not mean it happens through your hands.”

    My children were daily reminders that I did not always do with my hands what I said I knew in my head. Years of working in a church and going to seminary filled my head with information yet my daily response to struggles reminded me that there was disconnect between what I knew and what I did. My knowledge and my actions did not match up in so many ways.
    So the path that God has you on may be this path. He may be demanding that your actions match what is in your head. It is not an easy path and one in which you do not walk alone.
    My prayer for us is this: “God, give us patience and grace with ourselves as we seek to travel the path from our head to our hands. Thank you that you are growing us to be whole and not fragmented, assuring that our head, our heart and our hands align. Amen.”

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Waiting

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

    The day after Thanksgiving, I can finally begin with the Christmas decorations! There is a strict rule (my husband’s) in our home that Christmas does not begin until after Thanksgiving. Honor the pilgrims! Although I moan and groan here and there about waiting, there is something about waiting and being patient for the time of Christmas.
    Being patient is not easy, and I do not think it is supposed to be but I could either complain or pout until the day after Thanksgiving or I can enjoy the days and moments. Enjoying them as they are meant to be and wait for the day after Thanksgiving and the time in which Christmas begins being celebrated.
    This happens in all our lives. We have seasons. We have seasons that are rich and full of life and other seasons that are dry and seemingly without life. We have seasons in which we wait and wait and others seasons where everything seems to be moving too fast.
    I am often not patient in the difficult seasons. I often am complaining and pouting rather than enjoying the present as gifts, no matter how difficult they might be. I do not wait well.
    How about you? What season are you in? How is your waiting? Do you trend towards complaining or towards embracing? My prayer is that whatever season you are in that you would have a heart of thanksgiving (and that I would too!).

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**

Mommy Identities

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

Many have us have worked so hard forming our identities. Career identities, marital identities, individual identities. Our identities are constantly forming. Many times our identities form most solidly when we feel like we're in a pressure cooker. These are the times when God is forging who we are. These times of forging are painful, frustrating and sometimes not all that pretty. Transitioning from being a full time working mom to being a full time stay at home mom has been a bit rocky. This transition has been my pressure cooker of identity formation. God uses various times to form us not just in our identities as Moms but as His daughters. He ultimately is forming our identities to become more like Christ's. May God grant you peace, patience and trust during these trying yet crucial times of identity formation.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**