matters into your own hands

FROM "A LESSON LEARNED"
Not too long ago, Maddox had eaten his dinner rather quickly and asked if he could get up and color. We told him yes and off he went. While Brandon and I sat at the dining room table finishing our dinner, Maddox kneeled at the coffee table in the living room taking his time to color a carefully chosen picture with perfection! He chose the perfect colors for each part of his picture and took his time to color in the lines. After spending quite a bit of time coloring his artwork Maddox carried his coloring book over to the dining room table and asked me to tear out his picture. He wanted to hang it on the fridge. As I was still eating, I asked Maddox to simply wait a few moments and let me finish eating and then I would remove the coloring page from his book. Maddox, being a strong willed child and thus very impatient, wasn't happy with my answer. He wanted his coloring page torn out and he wanted it torn out RIGHT THEN!! Now, I know that it would have taken me two seconds to remove the page from Maddox's coloring book but as a matter of principle I wanted to stick to my guns and make Maddox wait until I was done with my dinner. When I reiterated my demands to Maddox he again found ways to show his displeasure with my decision. He whined, he cried, he sat himself down on the kitchen floor, crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip! I didn't budge. I told Maddox when I would tear out his coloring page and I meant it. Well...before I knew it, Maddox picked up his coloring book and began trying to tear out the page himself. Needless to say, through his uncordination and anger he didn't quite get the page out in one piece. As he attempted to tear out the page he accidently tore right through the page!! All his hard work was for nothing. The page was ruined and we could not hang it on the fridge. Maddox was disappointed...and so was I.

Lesson Learned? Maddox worked hard on his coloring page. He took his time and put alot of effort into his work. Unfortunately, simply because Maddox didn't have patience he ruined all of his hard work. The same hands that created the art ruined it because of impatience. If only Maddox had just waited and listened to what I had asked him to do the picture would be hanging on our fridge right now! But it's not. Just like in this instance between me and Maddox, we do the same thing with God. We work hard at things. We want to make them happen. We want to see our ideas come to fruition. Once we start something we want to see it through to the end. We're excited about what we're creating and we have energy to see that creation complete. There comes a point, though, in most projects where what we can do as human beings ends and we must rely on the Lord and his answers and his timing and his provision to help us complete what we've been tasked to do. We either can't complete the task to 100% on our own or God simply says "wait" or "not right now" and we don't like what we hear. We throw a fit. We pout and cry. We throw ourselves down and plead with God to act now! But God is patient. He knows what time is perfect. Our time isn't always His time. His timing is always perfect. So, in the midst of our "fit" we decide to go it alone! We decide that we don't need God on this one and we can make it happen without him. As we move forward, things often don't go as we had hoped. Just like Maddox ripping his picture in half, whatever we're trying to do without God never quite measures up to what it could have been with God in the mix. God knows what's best. He's not trying to make things difficult. He can simply see the big picture. He sees things we do not see. Sure we could have taped Maddox's picture back together and hung it up anyway, but it still wouldn't have been quite the same as if he had simply listened and obeyed. He only had to wait a few moments but he chose not to. Learn from Maddox. When God says "wait" then do just that...WAIT!!!! It may not seem fair and you may not understand it at the time but God knows the beginning, middle and end. Go ahead, throw a fit if you need to! Even cry! But don't try to move forward without God and outside of his timing. The end result will not be what you wanted and it definitely won't be what God intended. Believe me, I wanted to hang Maddox's picture up but he took that desire away from me when he took matters into his own hands. We do the same thing to God. Let his plans be his plans and let his timing be his timing. All end results will be better for everyone and will make more sense when you do!