A good reminder

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

I am not a particularly patient person. Oh, I try. There are times when I can be very patient. But the majority of the time I do not like waiting. It drives me crazy. I want to know already whatever it is, or do already whatever it is.

This is a problem when I'm stuck in traffic in the mornings.

Despite my hate-hate relationship with patience, I have become very aware that this year God is teaching me about patience, and about being content waiting for his timing.

If you remember, I graduated from A&M in August. That's not how it was supposed to work. I was supposed to graduate in May. My plans were being made, I had told everyone I saw over Christmas break that I would be graduating, I was so ready to graduate. The day before my application for graduation was due, I happened to be in my advisor's office and she casually mentioned that there were 6 hours (two classes) that I needed for my degree. Excuse me, what?! Without going into all the gory details, suffice it to say that there were lots of tears, lots of anger, disappointment, and pulled strings that broke.

I've always said that God has a plan for everything, and that it will happen in his timing. All of a sudden though, I was having to live that. It was not easy.

When I finally decided to let go of my anger and disappointment, there were many things that occurred because I had not yet graduated, because I was still in College Station for the summer, and because I (for the most part) stopped trying to control what was going on in my life. Funny how that works, isn't it? When we stop trying to take care of everything and God steps in, we later look back and say, "duh. Of course that's how it was supposed to work out."

This was not a good week for me. I waited all day Monday and Tuesday for some news, and when it finally came it was not what I expected. In fact, it was very upsetting, and it's affected the rest of my week. I had already figured out how things were going to turn out so that my world would feel the minimum effect. Once again, I'm being reminded that God is in control and I need to get out of the way; after all, being upset is certainly not going to change the situation. So, I'm trying really hard to take Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 to heart and let God work things in his timing.