A friend recently posted that her small children asked for something. She asked them to wait for a few minutes while she finished working on something else. When she went to find them, she found they’d taken it upon themselves to get what they’d asked for, in this case, chocolate milk.
<<<See the picture!!!
It was my own comment that prompted this post. I said, “BTDT. Children don’t like to wait.”
And then it hit me.
I’m the same way.
I want my books to sell. NOW.
I want to lose weight. NOW.
I want my walls repaired and repainted. NOW.
And sometimes, I want Jesus to come back. NOW.
We are an instant satisfaction generation.
Press a button and the TV changes stations.
Press a different button and the garage door goes up/down.
Another button heats up our food in 30 seconds or less.
The list could go on and on.
We are the NOW generation.
If we don’t get our food quickly, we complain. If the mail/UPS/FedEx is slow about delivering our order, we complain. If there are two people in line at the store, we complain, wanting another register open.
We’re always in a hurry, but we’re not really going anywhere.
Are we smiling? Enjoying life? NOW? Or are we putting it off…
-
- until I’m established in my career
- until we have a certain amount of money saved
- until I’m married
- until I have my first child
- until my kids are out of the house
- until I get my promotion
- until…
- until…
- until…
But today is the day. Now is the time to grasp hold of life. Enjoy every day. Stop grumbling about what you don’t have and be thankful for what’s right in front of you.
This is NOT where I thought this post would go. My intention was to point out that sometimes we act like the kids with the chocolate milk and take matters into our own hands. We step out from under the protection of God. Sometimes it turns into a big ol’ mess. And at other times, we manage to get it done, but I’m pretty sure it’s not as good as if we’d have followed God’s way.
Look at it this way…
Life is not about more doing. We need to concern ourselves more about who we’re BEING.
Two preschoolers are making chocolate milk. Two ingredients and a couple of cups. If you’re a mom, you can already see the mess. But they didn’t make a mess. It appears, from the picture, that they successfully poured the milk and the chocolate syrup. But did it taste as good as it could have if Mom had made it? Was there too much or too little syrup (and yes, I think there can be too much syrup.)?
When we get ahead of God in our plans, we run the risk of making a big mess.
Have you ever run ahead of God? Did you make a mess? Do you think it could have been better (mess or not) had you waited on God’s timing?
Blessings,
I’m quite certain that God has been working on me in this very realm, Ginger. Galatians 5:22-23 even lists “patience” as one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The paragraph about your friend’s kids reminds me of Dr. Walter Mischel’s marshmallow experiment: https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-gratification.pdf
If the researchers used chocolate instead of marshmallows, I’m sure I would even fail that test!
I thinks God has His hands full working with those of us who want it NOW.
I’m not fond of plain marshmallows, so I would have passed the test, but chocolate… I’m with you in that one, I might have failed.