Stop Rushing through Your Life
Have patience or you may miss the best parts!
Patience, the ability to put our desires on hold for a time, is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter. However, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become like Him. Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace.
God has a plan for our life, but he allows us to determine the steps to take. Are we rushing through the steps, or trying to skip steps, we think are not important to try to reach our destination faster?
The process of life is not a foot race. It has taken me years to realize this. I recently signed up for a certification course and was so overwhelmed by the content to learn that I panicked. I wondered whether I had done the right thing by taking on what appeared to be so much to learn – in so little time. I had in my mind that I only had three months to complete all of the course material. Fear in the mind can create havoc. Fear is a good thing if it makes us aware of something dangerous. It is only irrational when it causes us to be afraid of a threat that doesn’t exist, or paralyzes us to the point we are unable to respond.
As it turns out, the courses are designed to assist you in becoming familiar with the different areas of certification and not designed to be completed all at once. I have as long as I want to complete the content. When I realized this I did a big “Thank God, I don’t have to get this done so soon!” God is constantly reminding me to have patience and things will work out – despite my trying to make them work out faster.
We all have had those moments when we “Thank God” for something when things work out in our favor. And then there are those times that we pray for something and we feel that God isn’t listening because the prayer goes unanswered. Is it unanswered or are we not patient enough for the answer that may come later – or maybe even a better answer? There is a Garth Brooks song that touches my heart every time I hear it about unanswered prayers. The main chorus says:
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
We need to thank God for unanswered prayers because his plan is bigger than us. We need to focus on what we can accomplish today and have the patience to plan for tomorrow and not try to do everything now. The earth wasn’t created in a day and our future plans won’t be completed in this time frame either.
By taking the lessons we learn from patience we will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness.