Over the years, teaching the little ones to read has been a great challenge in character for me. Impatience lives in my bones and sometimes I'm sure that's one reason He gave us our handful of arrows. Patience is forced upon the person who must sit down with a child who tediously sounds out every vowel and consonant, a couple of times, and then repeats the sounds to try to form some semblance of a word they recognize. When this goes on for word after word, sentence after sentence, a person either comes unglued and frustrates themselves and the child or that person learns to sit quietly, giving up their own desires for a chunk of time. They learn to wait.
Moving to a small town can have the same effect...learning to wait. When we moved to this area, I was given a precious gift by an individual in the Wal Mart store one day. As she assisted me, our conversation revealed that I was new to the area. That's when she gave me her gift...priceless information. She told me that the people in this county are the kindest you can find, but it would take ten years before they would accept me. And then she said it would take another ten years before this place would feel like it was really my home. I had only lived here for a few months and had already experienced a huge let down.
For years before we moved here, I had been so excited to meet the people my husband had told me about. I had never really had a hometown before so this was going to be my spot. Along with my anticipation of having a hometown came my plans for getting to know everyone. I failed to take into consideration that my anticipation was only mine and not shared with all those people I planned to get acquainted with. By the time I met that woman in Wal Mart, I had come to realize that no one out here had been eagerly awaiting my arrival. People out here had their lives and their friendships established. I appeared to not really be needed. That was my let down.
So when I received my gift of information that day, life changed and I began to learn to wait. She was right. The kindest people you could meet, ten years before you're accepted...it's going on twelve years out here and just recently I've had moments when it feels like I belong here. I suppose it's becoming home now.
Waiting can be agonizing, but when someone shows you the hope for what is to come, waiting is certainly bearable. Whether sitting thirty minutes waiting for a child to sound out each syllable knowing one day he'll read fluently because of this or living each day of ten years knowing time around people will establish you as part of the community, whatever the wait, hope sustains.
If He didn't allow the agony of the wait, I fear I may not have depended on Him as much. He is very good to me that way...giving me what I need to keep me close to Him.
Isaiah 40:31--"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
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