What’s on My Mind at the Moment

This is a question that I ask potential candidates when I’m interviewing them for an open position at work. What surprises me is that most people from very different backgrounds always seem to say the same thing.  I find that God is also teaching me the very same thing.

It’s patience. God seems to be teaching me to more patient. I don’t want to learn this. I was everything right now or yesterday. I don’t like the idea of waiting on something. That’s how I feel when God is trying to teach me things. I know that God wants to teach me, but I want to learn those lessons quickly and then move on. I don’t like the fact that God is going to do things according to His timing and not mine. I don’t like the fact that Joseph in the Old Testament of the Bible spent many years in prison after being falsely accused. I don’t like the fact that Moses spent 40 years tending sheep in preparation for leading the nation of Israel. I don’t like the fact that even Jesus waited 30 years before starting his ministry on Earth. Can’t we get on with it?

So God has been teaching me a lot of things, like patience…but it’s been slower than I like.  In his book, Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren writes about how God puts situations and people in your life specifically to teach you things. That’s so true in my life. I think that’s one of the reasons God’s given me a special needs child. He wants me to learn patience, along with learning to be more loving, gracious, and compassionate. I think that why our house hasn’t sold yet after being on the market for four months. God is teaching me to trust Him and his timing. I can look at so many situations in my life and see that God really, really wants me to learn to be patient. I’m so tempted to tell God, “Okay, I’ve learned my lesson, can we move on now?” I don’t do that because I think God would reply, “Not just yet.”

What about you? Is He teaching you to be more patient? What else is He teaching you? What situations and people has He put in your life to teach you?