Wait For It...

In the interim between starting, and finishing, we generally experience a stage of waiting. One where we tarry through the muck of accomplish-ing on the way to full-blown accomplishment. In fact there is not much that starts, and then immediately, serendipitously, completes right after.

We hear a lot these days about the hardships of "trials" or "struggles" or "difficult times", but I have found that generally, the most arduous and challenging portion of these seasons for us all is the part where we have to wait for them to come to a conclusion. Essentially the point where we've done all we can, and there is literally nothing left for us to do, but wait and see if our efforts will be worthwhile in helping us ultimately reach our end result.

This applies to situations circumstantial, emotional, academic, physical, mental, and spiritual.

And lately I've realized I've lived at least long enough (let's not talk about how close to 30 someone is getting...but...) I've started to see that my choices to not give up on waiting, have brought at least a few good things to fruition in my life. And those things I have waited for, mean the most to me, and I treasure them.

I mean, when you wait 2 hours to go on a ride at Disney World, don't you love the ride itself SO MUCH more??! Especially when sometimes you're concerned the ride will close for repairs before you even get to it, or maybe you'll die of heat stroke, or you just might kill your siblings if you have to wait another 45 minutes in line with them?? But then you get to the ride and it's simply euphoric.

I tell my students all the time that if they'll keep working hard just a little longer, reading and learning WILL become more automatic, and less of an uphill battle on a daily basis. And EVERY TIME, the ones who stick it out, and really do work hard--succeed. Every. Time.

Not to mention, I do believe in God. And I do believe He waits for the Prodigal Son (or daughter, um, me... ALL the time) and my goal in life is to become like Him, so if He can wait for me--who messes up, and makes Him wait over and over and over--I can wait for Him. I can wait for Him to answer my prayers to help me understand, to help me prepare for work ahead of me, to help me wait.

Plus,

Remember:

Steven Spielberg waited through 3 film school rejections,

and a 7 day a week, unpaid internship,

before anyone gave him a chance to direct,

Babe Ruth waited through 1,330 strikes

to break the records he did,

JK Rowling waited through 7 years of writing,

12 publisher rejections, and poverty,

before Harry Potter was given a second glance,

Abraham Lincoln waited through bankruptcy,

MANY career failures,

and a Civil War during his presidency,

(which he didn't even get to witness the end of),

but he KINDA changed the course of history

So maybe you and I can keep holding on, 

and wait it out a little longer??

"It most often come in the form of a puzzle--one piece at a time. Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself; it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly. Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all. Then, looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us--not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed."