Wait on God

Patiently

My oldest daughter is twelve years old. Every since she's been born she's had an excessive amount of hair on her body. Let's just say, now that she's older, hair has matured. One area of this maturation, if that's a word, is on her legs and under her arms. She doesn't like to wear shorts because she feels she will be picked on.

One day, I taught her how to shave. This was her first experience of shaving. Stay with me people, I'm going somewhere with this I promise. I then stated to her, as my rule because of her age, that she is not to shave anymore unless I am present. I want to make sure she's careful and will not harm herself. She agreed to this rule. Once the hair started growing back, she asked me to help her shave again. But because the timing wasn't right (and the fact that we share one bathroom with about eight other people), I told her we would have to wait. In fact, everytime she asked me, this was the response I gave. Then......I guess she got impatient.

I discovered one day that she had shaven under her arms and her legs again. This was because I went to use my shaving cream and discovered that it was almost empty. And I asked her if she had shaven. She told me she did. So I asked her what I had said about the rule I had given her. She got quiet on me. I still to this day have yet to talk to her about this situation. But as I have been pondering it in my head, I discovered a valuable lesson in this. God wants us to wait patiently for Him to manifest His promises in our lives.

I know that this is a place where we've all been. We've been promised something by God or someone and that promise took forever to come. Or it seemed that it would never come. So we've gotten impatient and took matters into our own hands and decided we would go get that thing ourselves. I told you I was going somewhere with this (smile). Let me provide an example of what I'm talking about: Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham for the bearing of a child. God told Abraham that he would bear a son with Sarah. And because they could not wait for God's perfect timing, they created Ishmael, a child born from Sarah's maidservant Hagar. (Genesis 16:1-4)

Ishmael was not the child of the promise God made to Abraham. But because they did not wait on God, Ishmael was born. Hagar despised Sarah because she was able to conceive and Sarah wasn't. This was the consequence that resulted from being impatient. And everyday they had to live with that for the rest of their lives.

When I look at this situation with my daughter, I'm reminded of this moment in history. No it's not the same circumstance. But the message is the same. My daughter got tired of waiting on me to help her shave to where she decided to do it herself. All I keep thinking is what could have been the consequences from her actions. She could have taken off a slab of skin or cut into a vein. I praise God that neither happened. I am not a stickler for this saying but..... "What if"?

I relate this moment to a moment of counting the cost. Abraham and Sarah didn't count the cost of their actions before they took the matter away from God and put it in their own hands. And I don't believe that my daughter did either. My reaction to finding out that she disobeyed me was calm. But I could have had a different reaction. I guess that I'm saying all of this just to get you to understand that we need to wait on God. Because we get caught up in the "now" moment when God sees the whole (bigger) picture.

God doesn't allow certain things to take place no matter how much we ask for them or think we are ready for them. He sees that the timing may not be perfect or our attitude about what we are asking for isn't right. He sees the motive for the thing in our hearts while all we are looking at is the fact that we want it and want it now. As I stated earlier in this post. I have yet to talk to my daughter. But I had to share what I feel God has laid on my heart about this situation. And my prayer is that you will see the need to be patient enough to wait on God's promises. Let us not take matters into our own hands to get what we want. Let us count the cost. Because although we think that we will be able to handle the consequence of what comes from our actions....... the truth is, if we take it from God's hands, it will be harder for us to bear.

~ Erica

³⁴ Wait on the Lord,
And keep His way,
And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

(Psalm 37:34)