Broken For Building

I need more patience. There are times when I don’t want to wait to get the things I really want. Recently, my daughter asked for a spa day when I would give her a manicure and pedicure. She asked me repeatedly and reminded me that I had promised her I would give her manicure. But when I couldn’t get to her immediately, she decided that she could handle her own mani/pedi and proceeded to do so.

Of course the story ends tragically for my rug. Not only were nails painted, but the bottle of nail polish was spilled on my rug and the nail polish was not properly closed, leaving ample opportunities for a bigger mess. My daughter wanted results and she thought that I was not moving fast enough for her! My timing did not fit into her schedule and so she decided to take action. Needless to say, I was not pleased (that’s putting it mildly), but after the fact, I thought about it and saw many parallels with how I am with God.

Many times, I am an impatient child, requesting that God work on my schedule. After bringing an issue to God constantly, I sometimes get impatient and get ahead of myself. I take matters into my own hands, thinking that I can solve the problem and that God will not mind me taking action.

When we feel like God is inactive or unresponsive to our requests, we want to speed things along.  In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul grew impatient because the prophet Samuel did not respond to his request in a timely fashion. He took matters into his own hands and made an offering to the Lord. Normally, an offering would be considered an act of reverence to the Lord, but done out of God’s order was considered disobedient and there were negative consequences for Saul.

This experience reminds me that when I rush into action because I am too impatient to allow God to work, I end up with spilled nail polish in my life (which is hard to get out). I have a mess on my hands that now causes me to run back to God to clean up. I also have ruined carpets because of my impatience. 

Lord forgive me for running ahead of you and not waiting on you to do what You do best. You are the creator of time itself and you have ordained every moment of my life. And even when I am quick to act without confirmation from You, you are still able to make something meaningful from my mistakes.