This is something that I wrote a little over 3 years ago. Thought I would share this with y’all.
God has been teaching me patience and to wait on his timing. Until recently, I feel like I was in the waiting place(according to Dr. Seuss) for a long time and in many ways I am still in the waiting place. Excerpt from Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss:
“You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.”
It is in this waiting place that we often get impatient and frustrated with God and life. And we ruin what God may have in store for us. Granted God can use all situations even if its not in His plan for His glory. But where we may end up might not be as good as God intended us to be. We humans have a way of getting in the way of God because we think that we know best for us. But in reality the creature(us) does not see the whole picture like the Creator(God) does. So how can we know what is best for us over the Creator that created us into existance.
Sometimes we need to stay in this waiting place for God to prepare us for something greater than we can imagine. The waiting place is not an easy place to be but it is in that waiting place we can experience the peace and love of our Creator. Even though we may have no idea what is going to happen next. In uncertain times there can be peace and joy because we have our Creator walking beside us in life. Do I have life all figured out? Nor will I ever on this earth but I do know that I am a child of God. Who has a God that loves me more than I can imagine and fathom. (It still amazes me that God would love me and that He wants a personal relationship with me with millions of people on this earth.) And I would rather be in the waiting place with my Creator than on my own. We need to sit back allow God to do the work and be ready to follow His calling for our lives out of the waiting place.
This morning we had some snow and ice. While ice is beautiful to look at, it can be dangerous. Through out the morning my roommate’s dog, Neah, wanted to go outside. I would go to the door and open it for Neah to go outside. But she would just stand there, look at it and refuse to go outside . After a few times of repeating this process, I became annoyed.
As I continued to drip pretzels in chocolate, I wondered what life lesson I could learn from Neah. The thought came to me I wonder how many times we do this to God. How many times has He asked me to go ahead and trust him on something. But I just stood there, look at it and refused to trust Him because I was scared. Or how many times has He showed me something beautiful ahead in my life but for this beautiful thing to happen in my life I had to change or step out in faith. But I didn’t do this because I did not want to go through the pain of change or I thought I knew better for myself.
Sometimes in life God wants to show us something in life’s simplest moments. We just have to pay attention or we will miss them. What does God want teach you in your ordinary moments?
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” – The Christian Recorder of March 1862
I remember hearing this saying as a child and I am sure I used it several times myself. But as an adult, I started to think about the meaning and the implication of this saying. Reality is that words can hurt and can be painful. And once said they can not be unsaid.
This week there was a wildfire in Gatlinburg, Tennessee that destroyed many acres of forest, homes and businesses. There was a lot of damage done by this fire and the damage will take a long time to clean up from. While fire is something that can be so beautiful it can be so devastating also. I liken this to our words we say. Words can be used to encourage and build up others or ourselves. But they can also be used to tear down and hurt others. And if words are used to tear down and hurt others, the affects can be there for many years. Sometimes we replay those words ourselves and we still hear them many years later. In many cases healing can take many years. James talks about this very thing.
“A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!” – James 3:3-10
When speaking to others, we should be speak with purpose. This purpose would be to speak in love to others and to point others to our Father.
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