Patience in Waiting

Do you have the patience to wait

till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving 

Till the right action arises by itself?

Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching

 Do you have the patience to listen?  Do you have the time?  I've spent the last couple weeks budgeting.  I budget for MOPS, budget for my family, budget for the Sunday School program, but I can't seem to budget my time.  I just won't let myself create time to sit and listen and pray.  It seems so easy to shave off dollars in our budgets, but it's hard to shave off minutes of those urgent things we feel we must do everyday.  I saw a sign one day on pinterest that said "I can't go to bed, stuff is happening on the internet".  I feel like that a lot.  I can't give up a minute of my time because I might miss something.  Stuff is happening out there.  If I look really hard though, I can find time.  Just like I'm balancing my families budget and the MOPS budget, I can find places to cut.  The question is, am I ready?  

Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, 

you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. 

Henri J.M. Nouwen Life of the Beloved

We are reading Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting by Holly Whitcomb in my fall bible study group.  The gift of patience causes us to experience the slow pace of God.  God's timing has a rightness and a fullness to it that can only be found in waiting on God.  Patience is a call to prayer.  We will have to wait no matter what.  It's how we choose to do it.  Do we wait with patience in prayer and with open eyes until that water finally clears and we see what God was showing us?  Or do we run so fast that we miss everything?  Do we forget to listen and have no idea what the instructions were?  

The fullness and rightness of God's timing will be found in the waiting.  And in the waiting, we will realize those beautiful rocks turn into a more beautiful picture of fullness and life in God.  

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana

I'm linking up with Bigger Picture Moments over at Hyacynth's today!