patience is a virtue

In chapter 6 we find Broken Heart pretty rumpled after an encounter with Comparison at the grocery store. She heads home in tears to put away her purchases, and gather up her emotions. This part of the narrative was far from literal in the fact that I never encountered a little boy in the woods eating candy. (His grandpa had given him a lollipop to enjoy while waiting for him to finish chores before they could go fishing.) I never really had a moment watching a bird build a nest from my front window. I used the imagery to personify the patience it often takes to navigate God's plans for our lives. God's timeline is different. He is an eternal being, right now we are doing the "temporal" thing on this side of Heaven. Thus the frustration we can sometimes feel when we want to hurry up whatever it is that is blocking our goals.

That constant inward battle between our will and His. Do you struggle as I do? Knowing in my mind I need to live a life surrendered to Him, yet trapped in my own belief that I can actually control the outcome of that life? 

Patience is one of the most illusive of virtues. The more we desire it, the more experiences we have to test it.

I'm not sure I mastered the patience thing in the wait for our son. In fact I know I didn't. What I think I learned is that there is much to enjoy about life while waiting for that thing. The thing your heart most desires. We don't have to choose despair, anger, or distrust a sovereign God, we can choose contentment. Happily sucking the sweetness of life like the image of a little boy licking a lollipop or skillfully completing the tasks God has given to us like a bird building a nest - while we wait. It is in the mundane simplicity in a life lived for Him that patience is built.

"In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord determines their steps."

Proverbs 16:9