This past Sunday, we had our High Council speaker. And the theme for the meeting was patience.
NOT my favorite topic. (Hence the title of this post)
When I was little and Mom would bake cookies, I could never wait for the cookies to finish baking. I always had to have some of the dough. Mom always chided me that I would get sick, but I didn't, so I kept eating the dough.
The same thing is evident in today's society. We don't wait for letters in the mail anymore. Everything is electronic. Probably 90% of the general population have cell phones, maybe more. We can send text messages to people. Messages that mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Sure, this makes planning the weekends activities a whole heap easier, but what do we learn?
Instant Gratification.
Two innocent words that when placed in a specific order have a terrible meaning. That's what we are fighting these days. We live in a world of convenience for everything. Fast food, e-mail, Skype, text messages, frozen meals. I'm not saying that all of these things are bad. But I sure forgot about patience real quick!
I guess I'm writing this because I am not a patient person. I'm waiting for dinner to cook right now and it's killing me. I even made it from scratch! But hopefully it will turn out okay and I will learn that it's okay that I've been working on dinner for the past hour and a half and the food will be devoured in a matter of minutes.
I'm trying to remind myself daily that the Lord has things in store for me that I'm not ready for yet. I don't do well with the unknown. I don't like surprises. I like to have a plan, an order for things. Does this mean everything in my life is orderly and the dishes are always done and the laundry is always put away and my bed is always made? Absolutely not!
But when Earl and I were to be married, we waited "patiently" for the letter from Salt Lake to come giving us permission to be sealed (Earl was previously married). When we got the letter saying that we were to wait, I just about died. This was not according to my plan! Didn't Heavenly Father know that wasn't what I wanted? It may not have been what I wanted, but it was what we needed. Earl and I grew so close our first year of marriage. And it was a wonderful, hard year. But oh so worth it!
Earl and I are now sealed for time and all eternity. That was the best day of my life! Sometimes I feel as though I have a checklist of sorts for my life.
~find a guy-check
~get married-check
~get sealed-check
~start a family-______
That's where I'm at now. I want so badly to be a mom. I want to have a family. But Earl and I aren't in a place to have one right now. And that makes me sad. I don't feel that it's anyone's fault, we just aren't there yet. That's where the patience part comes into play. My thoughts and feelings are on a different wavelength from that of our Heavenly Father. I'm waiting not so patiently for Him to give the go-ahead in our aspirations of a family. So I wait, day in and day out.
What are your thoughts on patience? How do I learn this virtue?
And now I wait patiently for your feedback!
6 comments:
The making dinner thing used to really bother me...when I do even a somewhat complicated meal I can spend upwards of 3 hours making it. Then, gone in 15 min. Now, I've gotten to the point where I don't so much mind, and that's because I've learned to enjoy to process. I'll start well in advance and take my time with every little thing and just enjoy it. I guess it helps that I'm a full-time homemaker and have that time to spend...either way, I guess my advice is that if you enjoy the journey you're happy no matter what.
Congrats on being sealed! That is so wonderful!
Isn't it interesting how different situations are placed before us to teach us patience? I was the same way with wanting kids and then after a year and a half or two of marriage when we prayerfully decided we were in the position to start our family we still had to wait. After another year and a half we finally got pregnant and do you know what, Blake came at the perfect time for our family. Its just hard having patience, like you said! Time and time again looking back on things I realize why I had to wait, so waiting for a child this time around I have really tried to be patient and not complain that things weren't going as I planned them out in my head. so in a year or maybe later, I will probably look back and see why we needed to wait again. I think we all have difficulty with the whole patience thing - whether its patience for bigger things or smaller things or both - I guess its something that we came to earth to figure out :)
Oh, and I still am so happy that we could come down for your sealing! It was so nice to be in the temple with you!!!
Oh girl, I think patience is something you do.
That probably doesn't make sense, but we just... do. Ya know?
And I don't think Luke and I were ever in a position to have a baby. We just did what we felt was right. Thinks work out when you try and follow the spirit. Whether it's "wait" or "have one NOW!" :D
I'm sure there are other reasons why you feel you must 'wait' to have children and it's not Heavenly Father. If He wanted to teach you patience He would go ahead and let you have a baby, maybe two or three or more...
Having kids is a sure way to learn patience in a hurry!!! :)
I am not patient either! The 'wait' we had as a result of infertility about killed me. We were VERY agressive in treatment because I couldn't bear to sit around for years, patiently waiting.
My spouse was also married prior to me. His ex (who dumped him for new guy who *didn't* have fertility issues) played games with the clearance thing and refused to turn in the paperwork for months. We didn't know we could get married in the temple FOR SURE until 10 days before the wedding. That was SO hard for me. Luckily, as you say, it all eventually works out.
Hi Megan,
Thanks for listing me in your blog roll! This was a very poignant post. It's funny--my wife and I have had to learn patience, too. But we learned it when the Lord sent us a whole bunch of kids right at the beginning of our marriage! Same lesson, different path there. I wish I had some magic advice on developing patience. I don't--but I promise it comes eventually!
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