When the time is right

Personal Photo: Jersey loves being outside, and I was so grateful to have made the choice to take her outside and spend a little extra time with her while we were out there instead of folding the laundry. So much more joy and stress-relief came from this time than if I would have spent it crossing something else off my list :)

I spent the majority of my week last week sludging through all the things on my to-do list, without really giving myself a breather. I wore myself thin in such a short amount of time that I was finding myself empty from the joy I usually have. I was not enjoying anything I was doing, I was simply stressing and worrying over the clock: If I don't get this done before supper, I won't have time to do that. How is it already 8:30? I need to get to sleep by 10 or I won't be able to get a workout in before work tomorrow morning. These are just a few examples as to what I found myself saying day after day.

I am sure that I am not the only one that plans the days and evenings and sets goals for what needs to be done. Between regular household maintenance, all the extra work that comes with the warm season, the commitments we make, and the necessities of food, sleep, and more, we can find that our free time is slim to none. With how burnt out we can become, I decided to hit the reset button; I took a moment and slowed down this past weekend. I woke up early to enjoy my hot cup of tea, I sat in the sunshine after a big brunch, and I spent time with loved ones. I have taken that lesson of slowing down into this week and found myself much happier with the time I was taking to do things that I enjoyed. For example, I planted the rest of my herbs in my tiered planter on my patio. I wrote out the labels and made sure everything was how I liked it. I picked up a paintbrush for the first time since we moved here (a paintbrush for a canvas instead of for the walls of the house!) and I painted my mom her Mother's Day gift. I started a new book with Clay, from my favorite author. I took my little pup out to our backyard and laid in the grass with her. Yes, I still had to fold the laundry, clean the kitchen, and keep up with the other tasks, but I realized I had been putting too much pressure on every little second; So much so that I was not able to enjoy any single one of them.

Tonight, Clay and I ate our supper outside on the patio. It was later than we originally wanted to eat, but we finished up our food in time to be able to see the yellow glow of the sun illuminate the hundreds of dandelions on our lawn. It was such a beautiful sight that it caused me to quiet down, helped me tune out the leftover noise from work, and allowed me to appreciate the ability to see the sight as something lovely. The scene got my wheels turning; So many people view dandelions as weeds, but I have always loved the sprinkling of yellow across the carpet of green. To me, the persistence of the dandelion and the beauty of its blooms were something I could look forward to every springtime. Truly, the point of my sharing all of this is that time is really a perspective thing. When we stop trying to control the time that is given to us, and start appreciating the gifts we are given in each moment of every day, we can find that the Holy Spirit points out blessings, opportunities of joy, and the pressure of trying to micromanage ourselves and everything else melts away. Just like how we can see dandelions as beautiful flowers, we can see time as a gift. One that we can respect, rather than try to control.

I titled this article 'When the time is right' because of the value of patience. We become stressed over timing when we lose our patience, but when we have faith in the fact that the timeline of life is not ours to own or control, but rather that we have the chance to trust in the timing of God, we can harness the virtue of patience. Instead of stressing about everything that needs to get done, and subsequently feeling overwhelmed when we can't seem to get out of the quicksand of life, we have the unique opportunity as Christians to find God in each thing we do, in each thing we accomplish, in every moment we live in. Truly, being patient with anything and everything in our lives comes down to being patient for God. We are told in Psalm 37:7 to "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." Here we are directly told to wait for God. God will act when it is time to act, He will call us when it is time to be called, and He will guide us to where He wants us to go, when we are meant to go there. Believing in this entirely helps prevent us from getting overwhelmed. When we wait for God in each moment, we no longer concern ourselves with overthinking, worrying about what we might not accomplish, feeling the pressure build until we can hardly function. As soon as we stop fretting, we see God in each thing we do, in each step we take, and we become patient for His guidance and presence.

Being patient for God's plan to unfold can often be challenging because we feel as though the lack of control equates to a lack of responsibility over our lives. It almost seems necessary as an adult to be worrisome, hurried, and stressed. The culture we live in has taught us to jump into the rat race, to scrape and claw to get to the top of the ladder, and to allow our responsibilities to dominate our lives. Our value seems to depend upon how much we can handle. I want to re-evaluate this concept by really diving into how we can manage that stress, emphasize the opportunities for growth in our spiritual journey, and find peace in our faith in His plans for us. In order to actively practice being patient for the Lord, we need to know His voice. We need to know what we are listening to, why we are listening to Him, and the kind of peace that comes along with trusting in His timing. Phillippians 4:6 tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." When we come to the Lord, when we spend time with Him, rather than spending all of our time in the rat race, crossing things off of our list, worrying about every second, we find that each moment is more meaningful, our shoulders relax and we can breathe a little deeper, our chest feels lighter, and we smile a bit bigger. We can come to God with anything, and leave with peace, ready to be part of His almighty plan. And amazingly, we have the ability to carry this attitude into each thing we have to do, every responsibility we carry. Having patience does not mean the responsibilities go away, but rather that we can handle them better, we respond to them better, and we have a better attitude about them.

So where does this patience come from, and how can we develop it? The answer is that patience comes from our faith. As soon as we apply our faith, we find patience. They go hand in hand. Having faith is trusting in the Lord, believing that Jesus's hanging on the cross saved us from eternal damnation and provided to us the gift of salvation. Being patient for God is about trusting in His timing. It is more than believing in what God tells us, but also believing in when He tells us. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's timing is always better than ours, so when we become stressed out over the little things (or the big things!), we are always able to take a step back, find God, and put our faith in Him. Only then can we find patience with all of the things we have to do, the short term and the long term stresses, and so on. He will not fail us, ever.

I wanted this article to be a reminder to us about God's timing because I so easily get caught up in the whirlwind of it all. Even today I found myself anxious over a meeting that I had been stressing about for over two weeks now. I had to take a moment and consider Isaiah 41:10, which reads "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." This verse can be applied in so many ways, but today it meant to me that I should not worry about what might happen, because God is not only with me, but He will not let me fail. God's timing, His plan, His guidance are all worth putting my energy into being patient for, but micromanaging and worrying about every detail, is not.

Stress is part of being human, it is part of our walk on earth. However, when that stress takes over our lives, we can so quickly spiral out of control, easily find our joy absent, and our perspective on life taking a turn for the worse. In these cases, they are reminders to us that we need to be patient for God, we need to wait for Him in each moment, instead of trying to rush through it all and get to wherever we think we need to be. Time is a gift my friends, not an enemy that we are constantly trying to race. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us that "He has made everything beautiful in its time." This verse applies to us too. God is working in us, on us, and through us, every single day. And when we are patient for Him, are patient for His timing, it allows us to practice our faith and find peace in the short-term and long-term plans that God has set aside specially for each one of us.