What Do God And A 2-Year-Old Have In Common?

So much has happened since my last entry; I hardly know where to begin.

On 2/6 my husband’s employer announced that the business was for sale and would close 2/22 if there were no viable offers by then. He is unemployed as of today.

We went to Batesville, Mississippi, last weekend about a job. It was a good trip and the meeting with the owner went well. The job is his if he wants it. However, he would be supervising and training seven people – some are upstairs, and some are downstairs. There is no elevator; so, he would be going up and down stairs every day. Since he has C.O.P.D. (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) this is not a viable option. However, he is reluctant to turn it down with no other prospects

2/27/2002, Wednesday

We’ve prayed. We’ve called our prayer partners and everyone else we could think of that we were sure would pray about our situation and considered their responses. We’ve ‘sought wise counsel’ from the church elders. We’ve discussed it, and we’ve read “How to Listen to God” by Charles Stanley to help us discern God’s voice in our dilemma. We all three remain convinced that it would be a mistake for him to take the job.  Today, he made the call and declined. We’re quite calm – not at all in a panic.

3/3/2002, Sunday

On 2/27, as the day wore on he became more and more convinced that we made the wrong decision. He expected God to bring him the “right” job that day, after he turned down the “wrong” job. When that didn’t happen, he panicked. I repeatedly reassured him.

On 2/28, as the day wore on I became more and more convinced we made the wrong decision. That was the day I expected God to bring him the “right” job, and when it didn’t happen I panicked. Our son pointed out that it is not unusual for God to wait until the last minute to provide.

Every night from 2/6 until 2/28 I slept like a baby. My husband barely slept at all. That night I barely slept and by the next morning I was sure we were wrong. But, he had slept like a baby that night and was confident we had made the right decision. He even reassured me with scriptures. And so, we’ve gone back and forth.

Today he is nervous, but we’re both calming down. Prayer, Bible reading, and encouraging each other helps a lot.

3/4/2002, Monday

With no job prospects, he is almost sick with concern. I’ve reminded him of our reasons for making the decision we did. I pray with him, and for him. I read scriptures with him, and on my own. Still, this is a scary time. Where is the peace?

3/11/2002, Monday

I did find the peace that evening. The peace is with God.

When I went over and over in my mind all the reasons everyone said, “That job just seems so perfect for you guys,” I feel panic stricken and confident we made the wrong decision. I found the peace when I came to the place where I could say, “the decision has been made and cannot be changed; so, there’s nothing to be gained by focusing on all the reasons it seemed so right. Now I need to focus on “where do we go from here?” From here we go with God. He has a plan for us from where we are now, and He’ll bring it to pass in His perfect time.

Not allowing myself to dwell on what might have been at Batesville has made it easier for me to focus on God and receive His peace. The lesson here is: Once you make a decision in faith, don’t look back.

From mid-March through the end of April he had other interviews, but no job offers. During that time some who had been praying for us began expressing their own doubts about our decision not to take the job at Batesville, although they were not yet aware of his C.O.P.D. diagnosis. We were running out of money. Our choices were to spend the last of it on the expenses to stay where we were for another month, leaving us with no resources for anything after that, or use it to put our belongings in storage and move in with someone to reduce costs. After a lot of praying and discussion we decided to stay put.

I wish I could say that throughout that time we remained calm and at peace, but we didn’t. We flip-flopped between total confidence in God and worrying about what would happen if we ran out of money and still didn’t have a job. The scriptures that helped us the most were Matthew 7:7-11.

On May 24, we were down to the end of our money when he reached an agreement with a company in Texas starting June 1. The second lesson in all of this is: Don’t focus on your circumstances. Focusing on circumstances and trying to predict future outcomes of possible scenarios is a waste of time and energy.

Both of the above lessons are tough to learn, but the experience definitely strengthened our confidence in God. We were blessed to have each other for encouragement when we faltered. Also, our faithful prayer partners were invaluable in helping us refocus on God, who had the solution, whenever we both allowed our focus to shift to the problem.

People are God’s number one priority and we are social creatures by His design. The third lesson in all of this is: Don’t neglect relationships – marital, biological and social. It is not only for our benefit to receive support when we need it, but for us to also be that faithful prayer partner and supportive spouse, son, daughter, or friend. It is God’s plan for us to help each other along by bearing one another’s burdens.

So, what do God and a 2-year-old have in common? Aside from the fact that they can both try your patience, for each of them time is not a factor.

When my son was 2 years old he began insisting on doing things for himself. He could feed himself, and dress himself, with the exceptions of buttons, draw strings, and shoe laces. Of course, it took him longer to feed himself than it would have taken me to feed him – not to mention the mess. Of course, dressing himself took longer than it would have taken me to dress him. But a 2-year-old has no conception of time; it just doesn’t exist for them. Any effort on my part to assist in an attempt to speed things up was met with a frown and a firm, “No! I can do it” or “Let me!”

I remember one Sunday morning when we were on our way to church, running late. My husband asked, “Alice, why is that all of a sudden we can’t seem to get out the door on time?’ My reply was simply, “Because you can’t rush a 2-year-old.” Since doing it themselves is an important part of early childhood development, the best I could do was to remind myself that he would accomplish the task, patiently encourage him along when he got distracted, and make appropriate adjustments time-wise to my own schedule.

God created time for man’s benefit; it is irrelevant to Him. He keeps the entire universe perfectly orchestrated. He knows the perfect timing of every natural event, and exactly when to interact in the life of each of His children. Our fretting, calculating, and speculating, in other words worrying, will not hurry up the timing of God’s response to our problem. The best we can do is patiently focus on the present and trust Him, moment-by-moment.

When a 2-year-old is finished feeding and dressing himself he will be ready to go, irrespective of how long that takes. God is always present and working behind the scenes and when the time is right by His standard He will answer, irrespective of how long that takes.

It’s all about patience.

James 1:3,4 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.