Everyday Encouragement

What's Growing?

 

I stand in the grocery store line and tap my toe with impatience. The check out girl seems impossibly slow today and the woman in front insists on paying three different ways. As the minutes tick by I stare at the food on the conveyor belt.

 

Beautiful red apples.
Oranges that look like sunlight.
Peppers that started as seeds far away.

 

And I begin to think about time differently.

 

How much time would it have taken me to have this abundance a hundred years ago?
Months of work, cultivation, nurturing.

 

Now I roll my eyes after waiting for five minutes.

 

Why is that?

 

I realize it's because I'm used to production not growth.

 

Producing something is quick, easy.

 

Growth is intentional, done with care.

 

God isn't impatient like me.

 

He's committed to working the soil, watering, harvesting, going through the process, all in the right time. His plans are better than mine. Time is not an obstacle to him. Instead it's an opportunity for what's truly best to come forth in my life.

 

And in yours.

 

God is growing beautiful things in us, friends.

 

The longer it takes, the sweeter the reward will be.

 

Dear Lord, teach me to be patient in today's impatient world. Everything around me cries hurry up. Help me in today's fast paced world to just slow down and embrace the moments around me. I want to grow in You, but I need to slow down so that I can hear from You and do what You are wanting me to do in my life for You. In Your Name, Amen.