Lent 06: Day Four

Today is Saturday and the first weekend in Lent is here. During Lent the weekend is split, with Saturday still being part of Lent, while Sunday is technically a day off from your Lenten observance. Earlier in the Church, Sunday was the only day of the week you didn’t have to fast or semi-fast. Saturday, however, is still part of our Lenten discipline.

My daughter was terminated from her job yesterday. The first time you are fired it is a traumatic experience. She came home today to switch vehicles and spend some time with us. She took the Del Sol, which gets great gas mileage and left us her 1989 Cadillac, which gets…well let’s just say a lot less. She also got a few much needed hugs and words of encouragement.

Sometimes it’s hard being a parent. Though you would like to, you can’t always fix your children’s problems. There are times that you don’t want to get in God’s way, short-circuiting the lessons he is trying to teach. It may mean letting your child go through difficult experiences with the minimal assistance (a better gas mileage car for her to use), but it also may be what must be done. Getting this delicate balance of help versus allowing God to work is often very difficult.

We talked about what God might be trying to show her and what issues might need addressing. One thing I need to say though; it is so wonderful to have a child devoted to the Lord. It gives you such a ground of commonality to draw upon in moments of crisis like this. You are both speaking the same language, meaning the same things and often, even though they might be the one going through the predicament, you also get important lessons from the hand of God. He knows what he is doing and nothing is wasted; all things being turned to our good.

This morning, before my daughter arrived, I spent some time on my Moses story, rewriting the attempted assassination chapter. I need to find time to work on the book and get it done. This has been going on for a long time and I want to finish this story and start the next one. There is an advantage to taking your time, however. Characters fully develop in your mind and on the pages of what you are writing. They have depth they might otherwise lack and you continually hone them as you write and rewrite sections of the book. They have time to fully develop. It took almost ten years for Margaret Mitchell to write Gone With The Wind. I have been working on Moses for almost fifteen years. While not on the level of that Pulitzer Prize winner, it is much better for having had the time to fully gestate.

The way God works with us is often very similar. He is patient, willing to allow things to fully gestate. He also demands patience from us, which is probably the most difficult virtue to cultivate aside from humility. But he, who has begun a good work in us, is faithful to bring it to completion. (Philippians 1:6 )

So, I have to be patient and let my daughter go through this experience. I have to hold in check my urge to “fix it”. I have to be patient. I have to trust God AND I have to trust my daughter.

What is God calling you to be patient about today? What needs time to fully gestate in your life? I am sure there is something, so my prayer for you and myself today is may God, the author and finisher of our salvation, teach us the patience we need to be good craftsmen of the gifts he has given us: our life, our friends, our children, and especially our spouses. May we never forget that sometimes we just need to let things be, to allow what God has put in motion bear its proper fruit. Dear Lord, give us patience we need, right now… ;-).

Grace and peace and patience be yours.

4 thoughts on “Lent 06: Day Four

  1. We had a similar experience with our daughter. She is also a believer but still in the phase of ‘finding herself’. She suddenly didn’t want to continue her design-study, a quite expensive thing (sponsored by Daddy). We were shocked. After long talks and prayers we got to know the reason for her crisis and.. as you say, need to be patient and loving. Ben

  2. Ben, my daughter is a graphics design major who is 12 credits short of her degree. She is not finding herself, but as she has gotten older and all of her friends have married, she has felt left out. All she really wanted to do was have kids and raise a family, but so far no one has seen her as the one to do that with.

  3. Thank you for sharing, Will. My wife and I will pray for your daughter and her legitimate longing. “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withheld the request of his lips.” (Psalm 21:2)

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