A Lesson to Wait

My baby turned seven years old this summer. For those of you who do not know me, that is a significant milestone. I became a mother at 20 years old and for 24 years, I have had a “little one” under my care. That’s a long stretch of life.

There was a season of motherhood where that would have felt sad, but it I am not in that season. Don’t get me wrong, I do not want him to hurry up any more than he must, but I also really enjoy watching my children becoming their unique individual selves. It’s an honor to be in the front row of all that the Lord does in their lives. I even become students of them as they begin to teach me new things about the world, myself, and even God.

         My daughter (the college senior) has got me thinking about the word wait. That’s what the Lord has been impressing on her heart lately. Wait. It seems simple enough, but it’s not. Being still, doing nothing, and allowing the Lord to do what He does in His timing takes an incredible amount of patience and fortitude.

          The Bible tells us to wait. One of my favorite images in scripture is painted in Isaiah 40:31, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint". This makes waiting sound like an action verb. A place where your strength is renewed and your soul feels like flying.

         Why, oh why is it so hard to posture my heart to be still and wait…and trust…and feel free?

Most of the time I act like my dog, Pepper. Like me set this picture up for you.

“Oh my goodness. It’s bad…it’s really bad,” was all I could repeat. I sighed heavily and locked eyes with Josh.

“What?” he asked.

“It’s so bad. I am so sorry. I don’t think you can fix it,” was all I could say.

In my rush to leave that morning, I accidentally locked Pepper in my bedroom, when she normally has full reign of the whole house. Apparently, she did not like feeling trapped in that bedroom. She had no desire to be patient, take a nap, and just wait for me to come home. Instead, she took matters into her own paws and proceeded to do her best to DIG her way out of my room. After making her way entirely through the carpet, she went ahead and dug through the carpet padding, and even the sub-floor. Because she is a miniature poodle, she was no match for the plywood and finished her effort by pulling the carpet she had pulled up at the door frame halfway across the room. When I say “it was bad”, just trust me that it was bad. It didn’t matter that I explained to her how futile her efforts were, the damage was done. If she could have just relaxed and trusted that I was coming back, I wouldn’t see the hole in my carpet every time I walk into my room.

How many times do we act just like Pepper? We are in a life circumstance where we feel stuck or stagnant. Our eyes drift from the One we are called to trust, and we work with all of our own effort to try to get ourselves out of the situation…yet all in vain. We wind up making a big old mess, tire ourselves out, and look like big old dummies…until the Lord graciously opens up that door we’ve been trying to dig our way under and we can see how foolish our actions really were.

Exodus 14:14 says, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Be still.

Wait.

The door will open.

Your time will come.

He will come back.

                  Until then, I will be over here learning from my children…who are growing up rapidly me on…and some cute little dogs who are still alive (even after ruining my carpet).