The Joy of Waiting

Recently I came up with a "tally system" to help eliminate some of my constant reminding (nagging) of the kids to complete their responsibilities. Unbelievably, I was having to tell them to dress themselves, brush their teeth, and EVEN flush the toilet!! I knew I was going to have to motivate these kids to start taking their hygiene and chores into their own hands... and fast. Or I was basically becoming a screaming machine around here! So, I put up a white board and started explaining to them the ways in which they could earn or lose tally points. It has been extremely effective!

As I was coming up with the rules to this tally system, I realized that this was a moment that I could teach my kids about delayed gratification. So without confusing them too much I put a new twist in the game. They could earn a small prize with a meager amount of tallys... a better prize with a little more.... and a wonderful prize with a large amount. At first Shade wanted to redeem her tallys for the dollar aisle at Target (the prize for 15 tallys). But when I said "ok..." and started to erase her tallys, she said "Wait!". She didn't understand that she was going to have to start all over.... and the delaying began! She had her eye on the prize!!

For me, one of the hardest parts in life is waiting. However, as I thought about what life would be like if I didn't have something that I was looking forward to, I realized that it would just be a series of moments passing me by. How boring!

We live in a world where all we do is try to eliminate the waiting. It is up to us to teach our children the joy in it! The art of delaying gratification. If we don't teach them to wait for small every day rewards, how do we expect them to want to wait for things like sex inside the bounds of marriage? If they never learn the feeling of a triumph in a victory that followed a short period of waiting, they will never understand the reason for it. If they don't experience the richness that waiting brings to their lives, they will spend their whole life trying to please themselves NOW... TODAY! When ultimately they will always be longing. And no matter what they fill their lives with, they will spend their lives in a state of incompletion. Because we are all waiting And what we are waiting for is an entirely different place, because this isn't our home.

Last night Shade shared with me her fears of dying . With tears in her voice she asked me, "Mom does it go in slow motion to get old?" And when I didn't understand what she was getting at she posed a new question, to help the grown up get it, "Mom am I going to die?" It was a hard question for me, for this is one of my struggles. I am also afraid to die. Strange for a believer, I know. But I know that God will grow this part of my faith in time. So I told her about heaven, and our heavenly bodies. And she said "Mom, will you read the Bible to me?" She had never before ASKED me to read God's Word to her, and my heart just swelled with joy. I was so exhausted and ready to kiss her goodnight, but I was not going to pass up this opportunity. So I went to the online search and typed in body and found the verses in 1 Corinthians 15 that I was looking for, our glorious Resurrection Bodies. I switched the translation to The Message. Usually I like to read the kids that version, but this time it was for me! These verses are incredibly difficult to understand!

The analogy was awe inspiring.... awesome.... incredible.... amazing!! Our dead bodies are like a seed verses a plant. If you look at a tomato seed it doesn't resemble a tomato at all. But if you plant it in the ground, a glorious tomato plant comes out of it. Whoa.... and just think of an acorn becoming an oak tree!! Just another way that His creation is screaming out His name. (I love it!!) And the Bible goes on to say that each heavenly body will be different, as is the birds in the air, the creatures of the sea, the sun, moon, and stars!! What an adventure this life and ultimately our death and immortality truely is!!

As I long for Your Kingdom to come, I praise You Lord Jesus, that life is anything but a series of moments passing us by..... I praise You Lord for the adventure... I Praise You Lord for the wait....