wait for the best

 I had all my kids home this past weekend, which doesn't happen very often any more since two of them are in college. We got to have an easy day at home, which also doesn't happen very often. There was nothing planned, nothing any of us had to do. Nobody had basketball or homework or any of the typical things that take up our time in this season. Nathan got up early to go sit in the woods for a couple hours...he calls it hunting, but I think the main draw may be time in the quiet, away from a house full of teenagers! Those teenagers got to sleep in and get caught up on some much needed rest.

When everyone was up, a couple of my kids started looking for something to eat. I told them to wait a few minutes and I would make breakfast. That's a pretty common occurrence when all of us are home, so they know that when I say I'm making breakfast it is usually going to be a "stick to your ribs" kind of meal. I didn't tell them what I had in mind, though--they just had to trust that I was going to make something they would like.

One kid heard the promise of breakfast to come, but he chose to just go ahead and pour himself a bowl of cereal. He had been part of the conversation, but in his words, "I had already washed a bowl, and I was hungry. I didn't want to wait."

His bowl of cereal wasn't necessarily a bad thing. On any other morning--or even that morning, if he hadn't been told to wait--getting up and making himself a bowl of cereal for breakfast would be fine. But Saturday morning, I had something better in mind--homemade biscuits, sausage gravy, and a few different homemade jellies gifted to us from other people. Because he chose to go ahead with the bowl of cereal, he missed out on the better thing I had planned for him.

How often do we do that with God? We know that He has plans for us. We believe the verses that tell us His plans and gifts are so much more than anything we could ever ask or imagine. And yet, we push ahead with our own plans. After all, I already washed the bowl...

What if, when I go ahead with my own plans, when I strive after the "good thing" I see right in front of me because I don't want to be patient and wait, I'm setting myself up to miss out on the better thing God has in store? I've always been a planner and a controller. It's something I've been working on in recent years, mostly because God's reminded me over and over again that I'm not actually in control of what happens. I wonder how many times God has wanted me to wait because He had the best thing in store for me, but I rushed ahead and "washed my bowl" because I saw a good thing I could have right that moment instead of waiting.