After having Tess for a couple of weeks and giving her time to get acclimated to her new environment, we began some basic training with her. The first step was to teach her to sit. It took a few days, but now, she has that one down pat to the point she does it before we ask her to.

The second step hasn’t been quite as successful. She’s getting there, but like me, the girl has a hard time waiting. We’re teaching her to sit and wait until we give her the okay before rushing after her food, kong, or toys. She’ll sit, but the waiting is still a work in progress. At first, she’d knock the kong out of my hand because she was so eager to play with it and discover the many treasures it held for her. Now, after MANY practices and quite a few tries in the moment, I can get it all the way down to the floor and get my hand away before she lunges forward. Our goal is for her to wait until we give her the release command, but she’s not quite there yet. What can I say? Neither am I, and I’ve been in training much longer than she has.

Why is waiting so difficult? We know the Lord has the best in store for us. We understand that He knows best. He’s proven Himself faithful and trustworthy time and time again. Yet, when things aren’t happening as quickly as we think they should, we want to impatiently knock the situations out of His hands. Suddenly, we think we know better, or at least we act like we do. But how many times have we rushed into a situation only to find we made matters much more difficult for ourselves?

I recently rushed into a situation, thinking I had everything planned out. But when a software glitch prevented me from accomplishing one of the tasks I needed in place before I could complete my project, I found myself in a bind. There was nothing I could do until the software issue was resolved, and therefore, no way I could complete the task. But since I wasn’t the only one involved in this situation, I had to give my best guess on what the completed project would be so the other person involved could finish their end. If my guess is wrong, I’ll likely have to spend more time and money to remedy the situation. My initial gut feeling told me to wait until I had all my ducks in a row, but my impatience led me to believe that I could get all my ducks in a row while the other person was getting theirs. Somehow I forgot that things don’t always work out the way we plan. In fact, they seldom do.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve berated myself. Why didn’t I just wait? Why was I so hurried to get it done that I failed to do it right? Why was I so impatient? Honestly, the best answer I can come up with is that waiting is hard. But I’m learning that it is also necessary. There are often many things going on behind the scenes while we’re waiting. It may seem like nothing is happening, but the truth is, God often does some of His best work while we’re waiting. And I, for one, am glad He’s not as impatient as I am, or He would have given up on me a long time ago.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. - Psalm 27:14