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| "Waiting on the Storm" by Sandra Lee Baron |
Lessons on Learning To Wait
As noted in my last blog, I am
learning to wait. Two weeks later, I still have my kidney
stone and all its irritations. I am
waiting. The doctor has decided I need
surgery to remove it. This is scheduled
February 27th. However, I
will continue to wait on Jesus’ timetable.
I know He knows my circumstances, and because I trust Him , I can wait, hope,
enter a new plan, and keep my eyes on Him, which I define as trust.
It
has taken many years to learn to wait in peace.
I am an impatient person and want to create the best painting on my
first lesson. Whatever I create, I push for success. I remember when I learned
to sew. My mother gave me a piece of fabric and a shirtwaist pattern. She said,
“Read the directions carefully and cut precisely.
Do it in that order.” She left to work the midnight shift in her nursing
career , and I was on my own.
I
opened the pattern carefully and trimmed it as I had seen her do many
times. I tried to read the instructions, but some parts were unclear, others seemed out of order, and one section had arrows pointing on how to lay the pattern on the fabric. I put those aside. They were too tedious. I laid the pattern on the bright navy fabric.
I turned it to fit like puzzle pieces, pinned, and cut. I began by threading my bobbin with a navy blue thread. My mother had taught me
how to use the machine and how to make aprons.
That was my previous experience, but it gave me confidence. I just sewed that night and followed my gut feelings on
how to assemble. Every once in a while,
I'd glance at the instructions. I
followed the visuals on how to insert sleeves and gather the skirt onto the
waistline. So, I assembled and
sewed. After ripping out the gathers in the skirt and resewing the bodice to the correct side of the skirt, I was so happy with my first
creation. I put it on, swirled around,
looked in the mirror and decided to mark the hem.
I
tried and tried to get that hem even, but because I had not followed the
directions and cut the skirt on the bias, it just did not hang well. So, I settled and hemmed it the best I
could. I added buttons, pressed seams and the hem, and hung
it on a hanger. I thought that was so
much fun. It wasn’t perfect but it was
my creation. I reached into my mother’s sacred fabric stash, neatly folded on a
shelf and chose another piece. I felt a
pang of guilt but shoved it down and started another shirtwaist dress. This time I looked more carefully at the
layout process. I aligned the pieces on the bright cerise cloth as the directions
suggested. I cut and assembled much
faster because I had experience. I
finished in two hours and marked the hem.
This time the hem was even and hung attractively. However, as I sewed on the buttons, I noticed
in my haste I had put the buttonholes in backwards. I had not read the instructions carefully as my mother had recommended. I gained a
little more confidence, and lots of experience in ripping out buttonholes.
I
have read the Bible every morning for forty plus years. At first,
the directions were blurry because I read hastily and chose not to meditate , discover, or read carefully. I had ragged hems a lot of years. But, God waited patiently. As a young mother, I gained experience, speed
in doing things several tasks at once, but I still made mistakes that reminded me of my backward buttonholes
that I made at sixteen. God waited as I unraveled each buttonhole.
As I built my career in teaching, I learned
to wait on students until they took the time to read directions and follow them instead of
just jumping in and doing things their own way.
I waited for them to find their confidence and begin to write to express
their joys or hurts. While reading their essays, I smiled at their
mistakes, marked some, and wrote encouraging comments about their content at the top of their
papers. I learned to wait until they
learned a concept before I tried to teach a new grammar rule and apply it. I waited. It took many years for me to
understand that waiting brought new truth, fulfillment, and peace.
Because
of my impatience, I cut a lot of patterns out incorrectly. Because I wanted to do it my way, I made some
serious mistakes. Because I didn’t want to slow down and meditate, I missed
some insightful truths on living in peace. However, Jesus has waited for me
almost seventy years.
I’m
still not a patient person. The
difference in that sixteen year old who made her first dress is that I read the direction manual carefully and meditate how God's words apply to my life that day.
I know He is with me even when His timing is not mine. I have learned that I can wait and still know peace. So, I close this blog waiting, hoping,
knowing, and loving Jesus.
